Amanda Anisimova's US Open fortnight wasn't just "incredible"—it was redemptive

NEW YORK–Call it Amanda Anisimova’s fortnight of redemption.

Just weeks ago in London, Iga Swiatek had overwhelmed Anisimova in the Wimbledon final by the humiliating score of 6-0, 6-0. Many wondered how Anisimova would—or could—bounce back from that, and how long that might take.

Anisimova provided a resounding answer to all those questions at the US Open this last week, culminating with her appearance in Arthur Ashe Stadium in the women’s singles final on Saturday. The 24-year old, whose backstory has evolved from the sorrowful to the inspirational in the past 18 months, played a Grand Slam final that few, including scores of armchair psychologists, had envisioned her contesting.

Anisimova lost to the defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in an hour and 36 minutes, 6-3, 7-6(3).

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“I feel like I've done my best, honestly, with all of that stuff,” Anisimova said in her post-match news conference, referring to her oft-declared quest for mindfulness, for solutions to feeling pressured, for enjoying her tennis.

“Also, listening about Wimbledon every single day of the last two weeks, I mean, I've done really well with that. I've tried to turn everything around for myself. Obviously today was better than my last final, but yeah, again, today was a really tough match. She made it difficult for me.”

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The match was closer than the scores suggest. Anisimova is perhaps the only peer who can match the sheer explosiveness of Sabalenka’s game without betraying her own. But in this final, she had difficulty sustaining her full focus and energy for extended periods. Her game was like a campfire. It would glow for periods, then crumble and fade until she blew on the embers and brought it back to life.

“I didn't win today, so of course I didn't do enough,” she said. “That's just the reality, and I have to accept that. Yeah, I feel like if I fought harder, then maybe I would have given myself more of a chance, but I feel like I was really kind of in the back seat today.”

Overcoming a sluggish start, Anisimova roared back and belted ferocious winners, especially on the backhand side. One down-the-line backhand tickled the speed gun at 76 mph—fully as good as the velocity of a Jannik Sinner backhand. Although Anisimova built a 3-2 lead in the first set, she was unable to hold the next game. Soon, the errors began to outnumber the winners.

I feel like with finals I have a lot of nerves, and it's something I'm trying to work on. Amanda Anisimova

Anisimova is not an elite-level mover at the best of times—and it’s even harder to be nimble when the nerves or pressure kick in, and it feels as if your shoes are filled with lead. Sabalenka reeled off four games from 2-3 to take the first set. She smelled blood in the water at the start of the second, but Anisimova briefly rekindled the fire again—only to see it peter out midway through the set. She managed to force a second set tiebreaker, but Sabalenka (whose record in tiebreakers this year is now 21-1) ran away with it.

The most telling stat of the match was the disparity in the winner to unforced error ratios of the women. Anisimova, the No. 8 seed, logged 29 unforced to 22 winners, Sabalenka, top-ranked and top-seeded, chose to let Anisimova punch herself out. Playing (for her) conservative tennis, Sabalenka hit only 13 winners and made 15 unforced errors. Clearly, Anisimova was in control of the action—for better or worse.

Although she has always been somewhat streaky, on this occasion Anisimova’s fluctuations seemed conditioned by unique underlying factors. It had been an emotional and physically taxing two weeks in Gotham. Just getting to the quarterfinals in the first major played since Wimbledon was a significant achievement. Her reward was a heavily hyped reprisal of the Wimbledon final against Swiatek.

This time, Anisimova defeated the No. 2 seed, 6-4, 6-3.

“I just keep telling myself that I can do it, and I believe in myself,” she declared after the win. “I keep saying that over and over again, not just in the match, but the whole day. I just kept going over and over with those, like, affirmations. Today was a stressful match. There were emotions all over the place.”

In the semifinals on Thursday night, Anisimova faced a rejuvenated Grand Slam champion four times over, Naomi Osaka. She won 7-6(4), 6-7(3), 6-3, in a grueling battle that ended just two minutes shy of three hours.

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After the final, Anisimova denied that her inconsistent performance had anything to do with fatigue. Instead, she said, “I feel like with finals I have a lot of nerves, and it's something I'm trying to work on.”

She added that she regretted not playing “more aggressively,” but from the seats it looked more like her level of aggression was high to—at her best moments—off the charts. The missing ingredient was consistency, the absence of which goes hand-in-hand with nerves.

That’s a surmountable challenge. After all, this was the first Grand Slam final for the former prodigy whose career was derailed by the unexpected death of her father and burnout in the spring of 2023. She’s only been back on tour for about a year-and-a-half.

These past two weeks Anisimova demonstrated that she is more than capable of bouncing back, in ways big and small. She is a resilient person with a great big game, and she has established herself as a newly minted Grand Slam contender for 2026.

During the trophy presentations, Anisimova thanked the crowd and described her tournament as an “incredible fortnight.” It was also a redemptive one.