Anisimova's moment: Beats Sabalenka to make first Wimbledon final

WIMBLEDON -- As the baking temperatures of Wimbledon's first two days returned, No. 13 seed Amanda Anisimova kept a cool head to reach the first Grand Slam final of her career, defeating No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in 2 hours and 37 minutes.

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Stats corner: The result is Anisimova's sixth career Top 5 win, and first over a reigning World No. 1. Four of those Top 5 wins have come over Sabalenka, against whom she now holds a 6-3 head-to-head record with wins on every surface. Anisimova now has a 12-2 record on grass this year, having reached the Queen's final four weeks ago and followed it by making the Berlin quarterfinals.

The 23-year-old American became the first player born in the 21st century to reach the Wimbledon final; shortly afterward, Iga Swiatek became the second after defeating Belinda Bencic 6-2, 6-0. Anisimova is the seventh player born in the 21st century to reach any major final, following Bianca Andreescu, Swiatek, Emma Raducanu, Leylah Fernandez, Coco Gauff and Zheng Qinwen.

Anisimova and Swiatek, both born in 2001 have never met at pro level, and just once in juniors -- a 6-4, 6-2 win for Swiatek on clay in the 2016 Junior Billie Jean King Cup final. The Wimbledon final will be the 10th Grand Slam final of the Open Era contested by players born in the same year, and second in a row at SW19 following Barbora Krejcikova's 2024 defeat of Jasmine Paolini.

"You can get back to the top if you prioritize yourself": A star junior who quickly brought her prodigious talent to the Hologic WTA Tour, reaching the 2019 Roland Garros semifinals as a 17-year-old, Anisimova's path to this moment has not been straightforward. In 2023, she took a seven-month mental health break from tennis. This time last year, she was on the comeback trail, but at No. 189 was ranked too low to get into the Wimbledon main draw; she fell in qualifying to Eva Lys.

But since then, Anisimova has rocketed into the Top 20 following her first WTA 1000 final in Toronto last August, then her first WTA 1000 title in Doha this February. She is guaranteed to make her Top 10 debut next Monday. She also becomes just the second player in the Open Era to reach a major final after losing in the previous year's qualifying event, following Andreescu at the 2019 US Open.

"I think it goes to show that it is possible," Anisimova said afterward. "I think that's a really special message that I think I've been able to show because when I took my break, a lot of people told me that you would never make it to the top again if you take so much time away from the game. That was a little hard to digest, because I did want to come back and still achieve a lot and win a Grand Slam one day. Just being able to prove that you can get back to the top if you prioritize yourself. That's been incredibly special to me."

Match moments: The two players finished the match with similar top-line numbers -- indeed, they favored Sabalenka, who hit more winners (31 to 30) and committed fewer unforced errors (37 to 42) overall. As ever, those stats only told part of the story.

The first two sets were mostly characterized by straightforward holds (and two medical emergencies in the crowd, Sabalenka earning Centre Court's approval for taking water over each time). Consecutive games midway through the opener saw both players face multiple break points, and both came through unscathed. In the end, there was only one service break in each of the first two sets -- both conceded on a double fault. Sabalenka's came down set point in the last game of the opener; Anisimova repaid the favor in the seventh game of the second set, which saw her first-serve percentage drop from 67% to 54%.

In the penultimate game of the second set, the match delivered its first edge-of-your-seat game as Anisimova boldly fended off four set points -- despite Sabalenka striking one of the best shots of the match, a backhand pass following a scrambling rally that highlighted just how much her defense has improved over the years.

Despite Sabalenka closing out the set on serve, then immediately breaking Anisimova to open the decider, it was this grit that the World No. 12 took through the rest of the match. She broke back immediately, then moved up 3-1 as Sabalenka sent a forehand sitter just over the baseline.

The remainder of the match pivoted on whether Anisimova could protect her lead. She passed her first test, saving two break-back points in the subsequent game then coming up with a superb winning pass that landed on the outside of the line en route to holding. A breathtaking redirected winner, bold volleys and a fortuitous net cord enabled her to advance to 5-2.

As Anisimova came to the line to serve for the match, Sabalenka stepped up, piling on the pressure and refusing to miss in high-octane rallies. Anisimova's backhand began to let her down for the first time in the match, going wide on her first match point then long down break point.

But with the match back on serve, Sabalenka couldn't maintain the momentum. Cheap errors handed Anisimova triple match point in the subsequent game, and Anisimova found a forehand winner to convert her fourth.

"I was trying to really stay on top of my serve, was struggling a bit there," Anisimova said. "Holding serve was just going to be super important. In the third set I knew that I was going to really have to go for it. Her level just kept increasing and getting better and better throughout the match. So to be able to come on top, I knew that I wasn't just going to win off her mistakes. I really had to bring my game and do as much as I could, especially when it came to being aggressive."

"Next year I'm only hungrier and angrier": Sabalenka falls to 0-3 in Wimbledon semifinals, following her losses to Karolina Pliskova in 2021 and Ons Jabeur in 2023. Her 12 career major semifinals are the most of any player since Maria Sharapova, and she has converted three of those into titles.

Despite her three-set losses in Grand Slams this year, and in all her Wimbledon semifinals, Sabalenka was able to take positives from her results.

"I think even though I lost a lot of finals, I lost tough matches at the Slams this year, I still think that the consistency I was able to bring till this moment, it's impressive," she said. "Still a lot of things to be proud of. This experience shows that next year I'm only hungrier and angrier. These tough defeats help me to come back much stronger. I have huge hopes for the next year.

"I think I just have to constantly in those matches remind myself, like, how strong I am and remember I have to be the brave one, I have to go for my shots. I don't have to stop my arms. I have to be confident in my shots, in my decisions, just trust myself. It seems like in all of these three, three tough defeats on the Slams, for me it seems like I wasn't trusting myself. Every time when I remind myself you have to trust, you can do literally anything on the court, every time I show my best tennis.

"I think maybe US Open left, I have to just trust myself and go for it."