Amanda Anisimova conjured the performance of her career on Wednesday afternoon in New York, banishing the ghosts of her Wimbledon nightmare with a sensational 6-4, 6-3 quarter-final victory against Iga Swiatek in 1hr 36min. Less than eight weeks after she had been double-bagelled by the Polish star in the final at the All England Club, the 24-year-old American struck back with fearless ball-striking and nerveless resolve to reach her first US Open semi-final.
Swiatek, a six-time major champion and the 2022 US Open winner, looked intent on reprising the script when she broke immediately to extend her personal run to 13 consecutive games in the rivalry. But Anisimova struck back on her third break point, finishing with a thumping forehand overhead that drew a roar from the Arthur Ashe crowd and ensured this would bear no resemblance to the rout in July.
The opening set was tightly wound and fiercely contested, Anisimova fending off break point with a crisp backhand down the line at 2-2 and Swiatek producing her best point of the match, a 17-shot exchange capped with a forehand overhead, to keep pace at 3-4.
With Swiatek serving at 4-5, Anisimova forced two set points and converted the second when her rival sprayed a forehand long. In 50 minutes she had pocketed the opener, winning 12 of 17 points on her opponent’s second serve with the kind of incendiary hitting and baseline aggression that have long been her trademarks.
Swiatek tried to reassert herself at the start of the second, breaking for 2-0 as the crowd stirred uneasily. Anisimova refused to retreat, holding firm from 15-30 and then lashing a forehand return winner to create double break point in the fourth game. A ballistic backhand sealed the break back and from there the American never let go of the initiative.
Swiatek’s usually impenetrable composure began to crack as her first-serve percentage dipped and the intensity of the duress mounted. Serving at 3-4 she faltered again, coughing up the decisive break with her third double fault of the set.
Moments later Anisimova secured her place in the last four with a backhand winner that clipped the net cord and tumbled over. “Playing here is so special, and I feel like I’ve been having the run of my life,” she told the crowd after the match.
“The first day I got here, I just thought: ‘OK, let’s try to get through one round.’ But this has been a dream, and to come back from Wimbledon like that is really special to me. I worked so hard to turn things around, and today proved to me that I can do it.
“From the very start I was trying to fire myself up. She’s one of the toughest players I’ve ever faced, and I knew I was going to have to dig really deep. It might not have gone three sets, but it truly was a battle for me.”
For Anisimova, who took a mental‑health hiatus in 2023 and only last year clawed her way back into the top 50, the win was both cathartic and historic. Already a finalist at Wimbledon this summer and a semi-finalist at Roland Garros in 2019, she has now delivered her breakthrough on home soil. She is also the first American woman since Serena and Venus Williams in 2002 to reach the semi-finals on all three surfaces at grand slam events.
Anisimova crunched nearly twice as many winners (23) as unforced errors (12) and controlled the tempo throughout, rushing Swiatek with the depth of her groundstrokes and holding her nerve in the biggest moments. For the first time since her coming-out party as a teenager in Paris six years ago, she is not just a story of potential, or of loss and resilience, but of achievement.
On Thursday she will face either Naomi Osaka or Karolina Muchova for a place in the final. Fifty-three days after her Wimbledon heartbreak, she has given New York a comeback story to savour.
