Amanda Anisimova pulled off the biggest upset of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships by stunning World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals on Thursday, July 10. With the win, she advanced to the first Grand Slam final of her career.
Anisimova’s fairytale run at Wimbledon began with a win over Yulia Putintseva, followed by victories against Renata Zarazua, Dalma Galfi, and Linda Noskova to reach the quarterfinals. There, she took down an in-form Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to set up a high-stakes semifinal clash with Sabalenka.
But the match against the Belarusian was anything but easy, as Anisimova herself admitted during her on-court interview. Despite ultimately defeating Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, the American revealed she was “dying” out there and could hardly believe she managed to pull off the win.
"Honestly, Aryna is such a tough competitor and I was absolutely dying out there," Amanda Anisimova said. "I don’t know how I pulled it out. She is such an incredible competitor and she is an inspiration to me and so many other people. We have had so many tough battles and to come out on top today being in the final of Wimbledon is just so incredibly special."
The World No. 12 then made sure to thank the Wimbledon crowd for cheering her on, even when she was up against the top-ranked player in the world:
"The atmosphere was incredible today. I know she is No. 1, but a lot of people were cheering for me."
With her win over Sabalenka, Anisimova became the youngest American woman to reach the Wimbledon singles final since Serena Williams did it in 2004.
Amanda Anisimova: "If you said I would be in the final at Wimbledon, I would not believe you"

Amanda Anisimova gave a heartfelt reaction during her on-court interview after reaching the final of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships. She said that if someone had told her before the tournament that she would make it to the final at SW19, she wouldn’t have believed it.
Anisimova said:
"If you said I would be in the final at Wimbledon, I would not believe you. At least not this soon because I mean it's been a year turnaround since, you know, coming back and to be in this spot."
"I mean it's not easy and so many people dream of, you know, competing on this incredible court. It's been such a privilege to compete here and to be in the final is just indescribable, honestly," she added.
Previously, Anisimova's best Wimbledon result was a quarterfinal finish in 2022. Now, she’s set to play the biggest match of her career as she takes on Iga Swiatek in the final on Saturday, July 12.