Amanda Anisimova storms into semifinals in Charleston in 64 minutes

Amanda Anisimova stormed into the second-biggest semifinal of her career on Friday night, defeating fellow American CoCo Vandeweghe, 6-1, 6-2, to round out the final four line-up at the WTA 500 event in Charleston.

Anisimova's biggest semifinal came at Roland Garros in 2019 when, as a 17-year-old, she pushed Ashleigh Barty to three sets before falling to the eventual champion.

“It was super fun tonight,” the now-20-year-old said after her win over Vandeweghe.

“I love playing night matches. The crowd was really loud tonight.”

After not even facing a break point in the first set, Anisimova was put to the test on her serve early in the second set, fighting off five break points serving up a set and a break at 6-1, 1-0—but once she got out of that game and held for 6-1, 2-0 she never faced another one, eventually closing it out in straight sets after just 64 minutes.

She finished the match with 15 winners to 12 unforced errors.

“CoCo’s been playing very well this week, so I knew I had to go in playing very well and serving big,” Anisimova said in her on-court interview. “It was a tough match today, especially early in the second set where there were some tough moments.”

Vandeweghe, a former No. 9, is currently working her way back up the rankings after missing much of the last two seasons with a series of physical ailments—this was her biggest quarterfinal since reaching the final of Stuttgart, another WTA 500, in 2018.

Awaiting Anisimova in the semis will be No. 10-ranked Ons Jabeur, and beating Top 10 players is nothing new for the American—she’s had four career wins over the elite, at Indian Wells in 2018 (No. 9 Petra Kvitova), Roland Garros in 2019 (No. 3 Simona Halep), Doha in 2020 (No. 7 Elina Svitolina) and here this week (No. 5 Aryna Sabalenka).

The other semifinal will pit Belinda Bencic against Ekaterina Alexandrova, after Bencic upset Paula Badosa, 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4, and Alexandrova beat Magda Linette, 6-0, 6-2.

Bencic and Alexandrova are 2-2 in their head-to-head series, while Jabeur and Anisimova will be playing against each other for the first time.