One of the greatest comebacks ever just rocked the U.S. Open.
On Tuesday night, in the hours before her U.S. Open quarterfinal against Iga Swiatek, Amanda Anisimova did what she’d been avoiding for a month and a half: She rewatched the 2025 Wimbledon final.“Nobody told me to,” she said in a press conference on Wednesday, laughing at the obviousness of her own statement. As she sat at the podium a few feet in front of me, I could picture her family, friends, and coaches struggling desperately to wrestle away her phone. But Anisimova had her reasons. The idea, the 24-year-old American explained, was to see “what I can avoid or what went wrong.”What went wrong that day was absolutely everything. On Wimbledon’s Centre Court, competing against Poland’s Swiatek for her first grand slam title, Anisimova quickly dropped her first service game. She then lost the next game and the next and the next and the next and the next and the next and the next and the next and the next and the next and the next and, alas, the next. The final score line: 6-0, 6-0, the dreaded double bagel.So, what did Anisimova see when she fired up those highlights? “That I was slow as hell,” she said, again allowing herself to laugh. “I’m a human, and some people just freeze sometimes.”More than anything that happened on the court, what I’ll remember from that day back in July is how Anisimova steadied herself to deliver a moving, heartfelt on-court speech. In that vulnerable moment, she finished up on a note of defiant optimism. “I always believe in myself,” she said, “so I hope to be back here again one day.”She didn’t have to wait long. On Wednesday in New York, Anisimova wasn’t contesting a grand slam final. But she had earned another chance to face Swiatek, this time in tennis’ largest arena.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementI’ll confess that as I took my seat in Arthur Ashe Stadium, I was worried she might freeze again. I wasn’t alone. When Anisimova fell behind in the first game, someone yelled out, “We love you, Amanda.” I couldn’t tell if she was cheering her on or consoling her in advance.AdvertisementJust like at Wimbledon, Anisimova dropped that first service game. She then … broke right back. And from there, point after point and game after game, she was the one who made her opponent crumble.At her best, Anisimova can power through anyone on tour. Her backhand is one of the sport’s most devastating shots, a groundstroke she can slam with pace to any direction at any time. Plus, in the decisive moments on Wednesday, Anisimova was … fast as hell. On game point at 2-2 in the second set, she traded strikes with one of the best movers in women’s tennis, racing from corner to corner. When she forced Swiatek into a backhand error, the crowd roared and Anisimova shook her fist.By this point, Swiatek was the only person in the building who seemed anxious. When she double-faulted a few games later, Anisimova had the match on her racket. Then, with the help of a generous let cord, she closed out Swiatek in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.AdvertisementAdvertisementFrom a sports perspective, it was an enormous victory: a convincing win over a six-time major champion at a grand slam tournament. In emotional terms, it felt even bigger, and potentially career-defining—proof that she has the fortitude to overcome the most confidence-shattering loss.AdvertisementBut no matter the result, it was also just a tennis match. It was that realization, Anisimova said, that allowed her to recover from getting trounced at Wimbledon. “I’m living out my dreams, and I’m in a really good place in my life,” she said on Wednesday. “I’m happy every single day, which I really wasn’t a couple of years ago.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAnisimova made her first grand slam semifinal in 2019, when she was just 17. A few months later, her father and coach Konstantin Anisimov died unexpectedly. Four years after that, in 2023, the then–21-year-old Anisimova chose to step away from pro tennis, saying that life on tour had become “unbearable.”During her eight-month hiatus, she took college classes and developed an interest in painting. She also found a therapist who specialized in trauma. In a profile of Anisimova, New York’s Caira Conner wrote that “in the way she tells it, she kind of just realized, one day, that she was feeling a little better. Then a lot better. She’s still feeling that way today.”For Anisimova, getting back on the court after stepping away was its own kind of triumph. So was reaching the Wimbledon final. And so was having the courage to speak through tears to an audience of millions after getting walloped 6-0, 6-0.On Wednesday, she won again, spectacularly. As she prepares for her semifinal against Naomi Osaka, she’ll have a new set of memories to draw on. When Anisimova rewatches the highlights from this match, she won’t find anything that went wrong.
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