Amanda Anisimova stuns Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon to reach first Grand Slam final

The biggest win of this Jersey girl’s career has her one step from the top of the tennis world.

Amanda Anisimova, the New Jersey-born former phenom who made a French Open semifinals when she was 17 but had yet to break through to a Grand Slam final, will finally compete for a major trophy after the now 23-year-old upset top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in the Wimbledon semifinals on Thursday, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

Anisimova, the daughter of Russian immigrants who first settled in Colts Neck, will face Iga Swiatek in Saturday’s final.

“This doesn’t feel real right now, honestly,” Anisimova said in an on-court interview after the match. “I was absolutely dying out there. I don’t know how I pulled it out.”

Sabalenka won the second set and had appeared to take control of the match when she broke Anisimova at love to open the third. But Anisimova then won won four straight games to pull ahead for good.

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Anisimova, who was ranked No. 189 last year, failed to serve it out on her first chance to close the match but broke Sabalenka in the following game to secure the career-changing victory.

She fittingly closed the match with a brilliant cross-court forehand winner.

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Anisimova’s parents moved their family to Miami in 2004 as her older sister, Maria, wanted to pursue tennis more seriously, according to a 2020 New York Times story.

It was Amanda, however, who became an expected future superstar, which was cemented by her 2019 French Open semifinal appearance.

But she was rocked later that year by her father Konstantin’s death from a heart attack at age 52, one week before the U.S. Open. Amanda withdrew from that tournament.

She took a break from tennis in 2023 due to mental health concerns, skipping the final three majors that year after a first-round elimination at the Australian Open.

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Anisimova is now 6-3 in her career against Sabalenka, who had defeated Anisimova in straight sets in the Round of 16 at this year’s French Open.

The 27-year-old Sabalenka, a three-time Grand Slam winner, reached the finals at this year’s Australian and French Opens.