A 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova led Australia’s Ash Barty by a set and a break in the 2019 Roland-Garros semi-finals, but was unable to complete the job.

History shows that Barty went on to win her maiden grand slam title in Paris and eventually soared to No.1 and claimed two more major championships, whereas Anisimova took six years and a break from tennis to make it back to that stage at Wimbledon on Thursday.

Amanda Anisimova will contest her first grand slam singles final at Wimbledon on Saturday.

Up a set again – this time against current world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka – Anisimova was at risk of blowing another semi-final lead when she went down a break in the deciding set.

But just like the American’s career trajectory since returning to the sport at the start of last year; almost everything was up from there, even if there were still some challenging moments to negotiate.

Anisimova will contest her maiden grand slam final after extending Sabalenka’s title drought at Wimbledon with a thoroughly entertaining 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 triumph with a rollercoaster’s worth of twists, turns, detours and squeals.

She is the first woman or man from the United States to reach the All England club singles final since Serena Williams in 2019.

Anisimova’s final opponent is five-time major champion Iga Swiatek, who will also play for her first Venus Rosewater Dish after thrashing Belinda Bencic 6-2, 6-0.

“This doesn’t feel real right now,” Anisimova said.

“Honestly, Aryna is such a tough competitor, and I was absolutely dying out there – I don’t know how I pulled it out. She’s such an incredible competitor, and an inspiration to me, and I’m sure so many other people, so to come out on top today and be in the final of Wimbledon is so incredibly special.”

There was once a risk that Anisimova might not realise the potential she hinted at as a teenage prodigy as she understandably struggled with the sudden death of her father and ex-coach Konstantin to a heart attack a week before the 2019 US Open.

She chose not to compete at Flushing Meadows that year, but was back playing shortly afterwards.

However, the emotional toll on Anisimova was obvious when she broke into tears after a local journalist asked her if she was “unsettled” following her defeat at the 2020 Australian Open.

Anisimova continued to play, but after a 2-7 start to the 2023 season, she announced she was taking an indefinite break due to burnout and to focus on her mental wellbeing after finding it “unbearable” to be at tournaments.

The 23-year-old relaunched her career at the start of last year, making her first splash in reaching the round of 16 at the Australian Open before losing in straight sets to Sabalenka.

Sabalenka endured a frustrating day on Wimbledon’s centre court.

In a sign of how far Anisimova has come, she had to go through qualifying at the 2024 Wimbledon and lost one match before the main draw. She won a Masters 1000 title in Doha in February and has kept climbing since, including a fourth-round appearance at Roland-Garros, where Sabalenka stopped her again.

Anisimova’s semi-final victory over Sabalenka, which propelled her to a career-high No.7 in the live rankings, was dramatic from the outset, with two disruptions in the first set because fans were suffering from heat distress.

The Swiatek-Bencic clash also had a brief delay for the same reason on a sweltering London day.

Anisimova rallied from 0-40 in the seventh game of the match to edge 4-3 ahead, then snatched a one-set lead on a Sabalenka double fault that ended an enthralling 18-point game where both players were unleashing blistering winners.

Anisimova and Aryna Sabalenka embrace at the net after their three-set semi-final thriller.

But Sabalenka hit back hard – literally.

She broke Anisimova’s serve with some brutal shot-making in the seventh game of the second set, and had four set points two games later before levelling the match on her own serve.

Sabalenka trailed in or lost the first set of her last five matches of the tournament, and seemed poised to escape again when she grabbed an instant break in the third set. That advantage lasted just one game after she blasted a forehand wide trying too hard to force the issue, which was a theme of her fortnight at SW19.

They continued to trade winners and shrieks – of delight and anguish – but Sabalenka handed Anisimova a 3-1 lead with an unnecessarily wild forehand off a short return.

Anisimova then enjoyed a lucky net cord to surge 5-2 ahead, only for Sabalenka to launch a last-gasp comeback.

With the winning line in sight and having failed to convert a match point, Anisimova sent a backhand long to concede the break and give Sabalenka the chance to level the set at five-all.

Naturally, Sabalenka fell into a 0-40 hole – but staved off two more match points until Anisimova stepped up in a big way. Sabalenka hit a good first serve and stepped into the court to strike a forehand, then watched as Anisimova clipped a crisp cross-court forehand beyond her reach to seal victory.

“It was such a tough match and a little bit of a rollercoaster there,” Anisimova said.

Anisimova will try to win her maiden grand slam title in the Wimbledon final.

“I struggled to hold my serve in the second set. It just goes to show when you miss a crucial point or lose a game, the margins are so slim, especially when you’re playing the No.1 in the world … in the third set, I knew that I was going to really have to go for it.”

Sabalenka, on the other hand, must be sick of Americans after already losing this year’s Australian Open and Roland-Garros finals to Madison Keys and Coco Gauff, respectively.

The Belarusian shared an embrace with Anisimova at the net, but packed her bags and trudged off the court inside a minute of the match’s completion.

She will head to New York as far-and-away the No.1 in the rankings, but without a slam title to her name in 2025.

“I mean, losing sucks, you know? You always feel like you want to die, you don’t want to exist any more, and this is the end of your life,” Sabalenka said.

“But the first moment [is] always the worst one because every time you compete at that tournament, and you get to the last stages, you think that you’re getting close to your dream. Then you lose the match, and you feel like, ‘OK, this is the end’.”

Super Swiatek dominates

There was no such tension in Swiatek’s straight-sets demolition of Bencic as the star Pole continued her grass-court awakening.

American Caty McNally is the only player this event to take a set off Swiatek, winning the opening set 7-5 in their second-round match last week.

Iga Swiatek of Poland celebrates after winning her match against Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.

But the former world No.1 was in no mood on Thursday for a repeat as she broke her Swiss rival in the second game of the match to set the tone in an unexpectedly one-sided clash – and never looked back. She finished with 26 winners to Bencic’s 11.

Swiatek, who has won four Roland-Garros titles and the 2022 US Open championship, had never been beyond the quarter-finals at Wimbledon before this breakthrough.

“Tennis keeps surprising me,” Swiatek said.

“I thought I had lived through everything, even though I’m young. I thought I’d experienced everything on the court. I didn’t experience playing well on grass, so [this is] the first time, and I’m super excited and enjoying it.”

Marc McGowan travelled to Wimbledon with the support of Tennis Australia.

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