tag

Amanda Anisimova ended a tearful Mirra Andreeva's Dubai title defence Thursday with a comeback 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) victory in the quarter-finals.The second-seeded American trailed the fifth seed Russian Andreeva by a set and a break before rallying back to complete a two-hour 38-minute win.She thereby booked a place in the semi-finals of a WTA 1000 event for the fourth time in her career."I was almost in tears there at the end," Anisimova said."It made me emotional seeing her like that. I feel we both won today," she added.Anisimova now gets a rematch with fellow American Jessica Pegula.Two breaks gave Andreeva a one-set lead and the defending champion leapt to a 2-0 advantage in the second set before Anisimova retaliated and clinched the next five games.Anisimova got broken serving for the second set and it was Andreeva's turn to fight back as she took three games in a row to level for 5-all.She broke again to take the quarter-final clash into a deciding set.Anisimova served for the match at 5-3 in the decider but Andreeva kept peppering her with slices and lobs to stay alive in the duel and soon drew level.It was Andreeva's turn to serve for the victory but she couldn't close at 6-5 and the contest fittingly went to a deciding tiebreak.Anisimova upped her level to take the breaker and hugged a sobbing Andreeva at the net, telling her she was "amazing".Andreeva particularly struggled on her second serve, winning just 37 per cent of her points behind it and double-faulting seven times.Earlier on centre court, Pegula advanced to a seventh consecutive tour-level semi-final - dating back to the 2025 US Open - with a hard-fought 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 performance against last year's runner-up Clara Tauson.The 31-year-old American has stepped up her game following sub-par results in Montreal and Cincinnati last summer and has since been a serious threat in the latter stages of every tournament she has played."My coaches and I worked on a lot of stuff to get my game back, to emphasise what I do really well, get back to the true roots of my game, just make that even better and more efficient," explained Pegula, who hit 36 winners and just 26 unforced errors against Tauson."I think I've been serving a lot better. Physically been feeling good. Moving better again."There's a lot of things. But honestly, I've been working on my game a lot. I think I've become a better player over the last six months."In the first meeting between the pair, Pegula and Tauson split the first two sets and were neck and neck in the decider until the American claimed a crucial break in the seventh game.Pegula closed out the victory two games later to punch her ticket to the second Dubai semi-final of her career, and first since 2023.In the night-session quarter-finals, third-seeded Coco Gauff will take on Filipina rising star Alexandra Eala before two-time Dubai champion Elina Svitolina faces Croatian lucky loser Antonia Ruzic. 

Amanda Anisimova will bid to crown her improbable redemption mission at the US Open today as world number one Aryna Sabalenka seeks to grab her final chance of the year to win a Grand Slam.Two months after suffering a catastrophic 6-0, 6-0 thrashing in the Wimbledon final, Anisimova has bounced back to stand on the brink of completing a fairytale comeback in New York. The 24-year-old eighth seed held her nerve to battle past Naomi Osaka in the semi-finals, winning 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 in an instant classic that finished in the early hours Friday morning.For Anisimova, the win represented a personal triumph after the trauma of her drubbing by Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon in July. The American, who took an eight-month break from tennis in 2023 citing burnout and depression, says her success in New York is attributable to the steps she has taken to prioritise her mental health."Obviously, it served me well, and I'm really happy with the choice that I made," Anisimova said of her decision to step away from the sport. "It's clearly paying off now, and I feel like I have a whole new perspective when I step onto the court. Even on regular days or training days, I think I appreciate the process a lot more than I used to."That resilience was on full display in Thursday night's thriller with Osaka, when she banished any negative thoughts to claw her way into the final. "I could have easily said, 'Oh, she's playing better than me, and I can't really do anything,'" Anisimova said afterwards. "I really tried to find a way, any way I could to stay in the match, even though it was extremely tough."Anisimova will also head into today's final armed with the mental muscle memory of having beaten reigning US Open champion Sabalenka in six of their nine previous meetings. That winning record includes a defeat of Sabalenka in the semi-finals at Wimbledon, where she prevailed in another tense three-setter."We've had very, very tough matches," Anisimova said of Sabalenka. "But I think the standout one was probably Wimbledon. It was really a seesaw match, which is almost always the case when I play her."Sabalenka, who advanced to final with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat of American fourth seed Jessica Pegula, is bracing for another dogfight, admitting she still dwells on her Wimbledon defeat by Anisimova. "I have to trust myself, and I have to go after my shots," she said. "I felt like in that match at Wimby, I was doubting a lot my decisions, and that was the main thing that was bringing a lot of unforced errors. I gave her a lot of opportunities, and of course, she played incredible tennis, but I feel like I had my opportunities. I didn't use them."The 27-year-old from Belarus is also determined to avoid finishing her Grand Slam season empty-handed. The powerful right-hander was beaten in both the Australian and French Open finals this year before her Wimbledon exit, and is in no mood to let another chance to claim a fourth career Grand Slam singles title pass her by.That sense of steely determination was on display at the Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday as she fought back from a set down to squeeze past Pegula. "I badly wanted to give myself another opportunity, another final, and I want to prove to myself that I learned those tough lessons and I can do better in the finals," said Sabalenka, referencing this season's losses in Melbourne and Paris.Sabalenka is also aiming to achieve something that has become increasingly rare over the years in successfully defending the US Open. No woman has retained the title since Serena Williams won three in a row in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Asked earlier in the tournament for her thoughts on the fact that the last 11 US Open titles have been shared between 10 players, Sabalenka quipped: "My thought is to change it."