NEW YORK — Surprise wasn’t in short supply Wednesday night.
Less than two months ago, Amanda Anisimova endured a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Iga Swiatek in the Wimbledon final, the most important match of her career.
This time, she leaned on the power of positive thinking. On Wednesday, Anisimova upset the No. 2 player in the world 6-4, 6-3 in the US Open quarterfinals.
“The first day I got here, I was like, ‘OK, let’s try and get through one round,’” Anisimova said in her on-court interview. “Yeah, this has been such a dream.
Sabalenka or Pegula? Breaking down the top half of the draw
“To come back from Wimbledon like that, yeah, is really special to me. I feel like I worked so hard to try and turn around from that. I mean, today proved everything for me — I can do it.”
And as it turns out, so can four-time Grand Slam singles champion Naomi Osaka.
After Venus Williams and Swiatek, Osaka is the active player with the most major titles. The last came more than four-and-a-half years ago at the 2021 Australian Open, but after defeating Karolina Muchova 6-4, 7-6 (3) Osaka suddenly looks like the vintage player who dominated the hard courts before stepping away on maternity leave.
Thursday’s order of play
No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka vs. No. 4 Jessica Pegula, 7 p.m. ET
No. 8 Amanda Anisimova vs. No. 23 Naomi Osaka, to follow
Osaka meets Anisimova on Thursday night following the 7 p.m. match between No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 4 Jessica Pegula.
We make the case for each of the semifinalists from the bottom half of the draw:
No. 8 Amanda Anisimova vs. Naomi Osaka
Head-to-head: 2-0, Anisimova, both in Grand Slams in 2022 — the Australian Open and Roland Garros.
Advantage, Anisimova
Let’s review: In the past two months, Anisimova has beaten the best two players in the world — on two different surfaces, on two different continents. The first was a memorable semifinal win over Aryna Sabalenka.
And now, out of nowhere, the 24-year-old American has advanced to the semifinals of back-to-back Grand Slams. Afterward, Anisimova revealed that on Tuesday night she watched tape of that 6-0, 6-0 loss to Swiatek.
“As painful as it was, just to see what I can avoid or what went wrong,” Anisimova said. “Then after I had to watch some good highlights to remove that from my brain.
“I think it was important for me to kind of see what happened last night going into today’s match. My reactions were just — I was so slow, but I mean, it happens. I’m a human, and some people just freeze sometimes.”
Against Swiatek, Anisimova was on fire. She won 24 of 34 first-serve points but more importantly crushed Swiatek’s second serve, winning 20 of those 30 points. The backhand was crackling, too. Anisimova finished with 11 more winners than unforced errors, while Swiatek was minus-2.
“I’m just really, really proud of myself,” Anisimova said. “I feel like I really made a point to myself and also maybe to other people that if you really put a positive mindset out there or just try and work through things you can have a positive outcome.
“I feel like I was really able to do all the right things, so I’m really happy.”
Advantage, Osaka
Two words: She’s back.
Playing in her fifth Grand Slam singles quarterfinal, Osaka advanced to the semifinals for the fifth time. Spoiler alert — the past four times she’s been in this position, she’s gone on to win the title.
How does she explain that?
“I can’t really answer you since it’s been a while since I’ve been in that position,” Osaka said when the question was posed in her on-court interview. “I’m actually surprised I’m not crying. There’s so much hard work you guys haven’t seen.
“This is my dream come true.”
Among players who started their career in the Open Era, Osaka is only the third woman to win each of her first five major quarterfinals after Chris Evert and Sabalenka. Osaka has now won six consecutive matches against Top 20 players in the PIF WTA Rankings, matching her longest career streak in 2019-20.
The better the opponent, the better Osaka has played. She dismantled No. 3 seed Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-2 in the fourth round and this straight-sets result bodes well for her matchup against Anisimova.
One more number: Among active players, Osaka (80.6%, 54-13) trails only Sabalenka (83.6%, 61-12) for winning percentage on hard courts at Grand Slam events.
“For me, she’s always been one of the most talented players on tour,” Osaka said of Anisimova. “I think she’s one of the players where you don’t know where she’s going to hit the ball kind of thing. I think to play Iga here now and to win it on home soil is something that is a really big achievement, and credit to her.
“I think the match is going to be really tough tomorrow.”
AloJapan.com