By Amy Tennery
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Amanda Anisimova proved that she would not be defined by the memories of her painful Wimbledon rout after she gained sweet revenge on Iga Swiatek to reach the U.S. Open semi-finals with a stunning 6-4 6-3 win over the Polish second seed on Wednesday.
The American eighth seed had been on the receiving end of a brutal 6-0 6-0 demolition job by Swiatek in the Wimbledon showpiece less than two months ago but produced some of her best tennis at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where she was cheered on by the partisan fans as she flipped the script on the six-times major winner.
Swiatek had looked to be among the top contenders after her run to the title at the Cincinnati tune-up tournament, but struggled to find her rhythm on Wednesday against a determined opponent who demonstrated that she had the weapons to topple the favourites.
Anisimova will next play either Czech 11th seed Karolina Muchova or the four-times major winner Naomi Osaka.
“To come back like that from Wimbledon is special to me,” she said. “I worked so hard to turn around from that and today I proved that I can do it.”
Tennis fans had expected another easy win for Swiatek and when Anisimova dropped her serve in the opening game of the match, those tuned in for the contest hoped that history was not about to repeat itself.
They need not have worried as Anisimova buried her Wimbledon demons by immediately breaking back and then left her Polish rival visibly irritated as she saved two break points against her in the fifth game.
Anisimova whipped the fans into a frenzy as she earned two set points on Swiatek’s serve at 5-3 up, with the Pole firing the ball long to surrender the set.
Swiatek returned to the second set with renewed resolve, breaking Anisimova from the baseline in the opening game, but she could not hang onto the lead as the American wiped out the advantage in the fourth game.
The second set unravelled for Swiatek as she hit a double fault on break point to fall behind 3-5 and Anisimova appeared stunned after her blazing backhand on match point clipped the net but still landed in to secure her the win.
“From the get go I was trying to fire myself up. She’s one of the toughest players I’ve played,” she said. “I knew I was going to have to dig deep.”
Swiatek, who struggled to hold back tears as she walked through the tunnel out of Ashe, said everything about her opponent was different in comparison to their Wimbledon encounter.
“She didn’t play well in Wimbledon, but it’s not like she’s always going to do the same mistakes or feel the same,” said Swiatek. “She can play great tennis.”
For Anisimova, the commanding win was a testament to the power of her hard-earned “positive mindset.”
She pulled the plug on her tennis year in May 2023 after a gruelling cycle of disappointing results, a break that yielded results as she picked up her first 1000-level title in Doha earlier this year.
And while she left the Wimbledon court in tears, the 24-year-old told reporters she was able to bounce back quickly from the defeat, a testament to her newfound resiliency.
“Maybe a few years ago I wouldn’t have done the same as well as I have this time,” she said. “I would have maybe blamed myself more or held on to guilt for a longer amount of time.
“Truly, the most that I felt bad was for the people that had come to watch that day.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York, additional reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in New YorkEditing by Toby Davis, Pritha Sarkar and Jacqueline Wong)
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