The very hard-fought match saw Amanda Anisimova pulling off a brake feat, coming from behind to defeat Naomi Osaka 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-3 and enter US Open final, there she will be meeting the defending champion Aryna Sabalenka.
In less than three hours, Anisimova, 24, the American who had never managed to get to the end of her dream of Flushing Meadows, named the moment “a dream coming true” after outplaying the four-time Grand Slam winner.
It appeared that Osaka was getting everything right in her first Grand Slam semi-final since 2021, as she won a very tightly fought opening set on Arthur Ashe Stadium adapting well in the tiebreak and taking advantage of a mistake by Anisimova there.
The winner of the previous 3 Grand Slam titles, however, didn’t vanish and with calmness in a second-set tiebreak she equalized the score and then took the lead with energetic baseline drives attack in the deciding set.
Anisimova, who was completely stripped of her dignity in a 6-0,6-0 defeat by Iga Swiatek in the Wimbledon final in July, demonstrated extraordinary toughness of spirit when she bounced back to make it to two successive major finals.Uracing in her mind, she said, “The thing to show here is how much I’ve worked on the mental part of the game. I kept trying to be part of the match, even though it was very hard for me to do so.”
Speaking positively, Osaka said: “I don’t feel sad. I am telling you, it’s inspiring. It makes me want to work even harder than before and be better next time.”
