Twenty three year old American Amanda Anisimova. who brought to the court a Wimbledon dream she had been long dreaming of but vowed to put it out of her mind after a failed attempt last year in the run up to reaching the semi finals, yesterday provided the first major upset in knocking out No 1 Aryana Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, to standing a step away from the elusive women’s big crown when she takes on Poland’s Iga Swiatek in the finals on Saturday
The hard work of the fulfilment of her teenage potential several years ago has indeed brought her close to that big dream Amanda has mounted following a mental health relief break to coming back in true armeda fashion to knocking out Sabalenka.
“To be honest, if you told me I would be in the final of Wimbledon I would not believe you. Especially not this soon,” Anisimova said.
“It’s been a year’s turnaround. To be in the final is just indescribable, honestly.”
After losing in the third round of qualifying while ranked 191st in the world, this time last year she was relaxing with her friends and family to take her mind off Wimbledon.
“Every time I’m out of a Grand Slam or a tournament, I take a few days off. I don’t turn my phone off, but I don’t really follow [what is going on],” she said.
“I like to just relax and spend as much time with whoever I’m with. That’s what I was doing [last year].”
Watched on Centre Court by her sister Maria and nephew Jaxson, who was celebrating his fourth birthday, and her best friend and fellow player Priscilla Hon – who had cancelled a training session to be there – Anisimova was surrounded by her loved ones for different reasons on Thursday.
Delivering the type of big-hitting performance that she had shown six years ago in a breakthrough year when she reached the French Open semi-finals, she put herself one win away from a first major title.
She is only the second player in the Open era to reach a women’s singles Grand Slam final after losing in qualifying at the previous year’s event. The only other woman is Bianca Andreescu, who won the US Open in 20