new york: Amanda Anisimova eliminated four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka 6-7(4) 7-6(3) 6-3 in a US Open semifinal that ended at nearly 1 am Friday and featured two of the most powerful first-strike hitters in women’s tennis.
The No. 8-seeded Anisimova, a 24-year-old who was born in New Jersey and grew up in Florida, reached her second straight Major final by coming through after 2 hours, 56 minutes.
“I wasn’t sure I would make it past the finish line and I tried to dig deep,” said Anisimova, who needed three match points to get the job done. “It was a huge fight out there today.”
When it was over, Anisimova yelled, “Let’s go!” and enjoyed the moment by kneeling on the court and leaning forward. She will face defending champion and current No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday for the title. She beat Jessica Pegula in three sets.
This is the fifth consecutive women’s final at a Slam involving an American woman. At Wimbledon in July, Anisimova had a Grand Slam breakthrough, upsetting Sabalenka in the semifinals — a result that increased the American’s edge in their head-to-head series to 6-3 — and making it all the way to the title match before losing 6-0 6-0 to Iga Swiatek. But Anisimova recovered from that quickly enough and well enough to get past Swiatek in two sets in the US Open
quarterfinals.