Amanda Anisimova ousts Naomi Osaka at U.S. Open, will meet Aryna Sabalenka in final

The second U.S. Open women’s semifinal simply could be described as exhausting: a 2-hour, 56-minute epic that started on Thursday night and ended in the early hours of Friday morning.

But at the end of it, Amanda Anisimova earned a reward that was worth the wait: her first trip to the Open final.

The eighth-seeded Anisimova survived a chaotic match with a 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-3 win over No. 23 Naomi Osaka — the resurgent former World No. 1 in her best form after her 17-month maternity leave — at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“Naomi is playing amazing tennis,” Anisimova said in her on-court interview after the match. “She’s back where she belongs, and I told her I’m so proud of her after having a baby and playing at this level — it’s insane. She was really giving me a run for the final. I wasn’t sure I would make it past the finish line, and I tried to dig deep. It was a huge fight out there today.”

Anisimova, 24, who was born in Freehold, New Jersey, will make her second career Grand Slam final appearance when she takes on world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the championship match at 4 p.m. Saturday at Ashe.

Sabalenka held off fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, in a 2-hour, 5-minute thriller earlier Thursday night in a rematch of the 2024 U.S. Open final.

It is Anisimova’s second career (and second consecutive) major final appearance after losing to Iga Swiatek in July’s Wimbledon championship match.

Anisimova took a 4-1 lead in the third set, breaking Osaka in the fourth game. She held a 5-3 lead entering the ninth game of the set, in which Osaka forced three deuces and had the advantage twice, but Anisimova finally secured the win on her third match-point attempt.

Neither player could get in a groove with her serve in the first two sets, as the first featured four breaks and the second had six.

Osaka held a 6-5 lead in the second set, but Anisimova held serve in the 12th game to force a tiebreak. Anisimova took a 4-0 lead in the tiebreak, which she never trailed to force a deciding third set.

Anisimova improved to 3-0 against Osaka, also defeating her in the first round of the 2022 French Open and the third round of the 2022 Australian Open.

Osaka, 27, reached the U.S. Open semifinals for the first time since she won it all in 2020 (she also won in 2018). She ignited the tennis world with a run that included a straight-sets upset win over No. 3 seed Coco Gauff in the third round on Monday.

Sabalenka, 27, from Belarus, is in the U.S. Open final for the third straight year, also reaching the stage in 2023 before losing to Gauff. Thursday marked her fifth straight U.S. Open semifinal appearance.

She is in her third major tournament final of 2025, having lost in the final of both the Australian Open and French Open.

“I’m super-excited to give myself another opportunity, another final,” Sabalenka said. “If I’ll be able to hold that trophy, it’s going to mean a lot for me. I’ll be just the happiest person on Earth, probably.”

Sabalenka was aggressive throughout, posting 43 winners (Pegula had 21). She had 27 unforced errors; Pegula had a clean night with only 15.

Pegula, 31, from Buffalo, is the daughter of Terry and Kim Pegula, owners of the NFL’s Bills and the NHL’s Sabres. She was knocking on the doorstep of a U.S. Open title last year before falling to Sabalenka, 7-5, 7-5.

After Pegula advanced to this year’s semifinals with a straight-sets win over Barbora Krejcikova on Tuesday, she was asked about the possibility of facing Sabalenka again.

“I think it would be cool to be able to get revenge, obviously,” she said.

Revenge will have to wait.

Pegula played in only her second major semifinal Thursday and remains in search of her first Grand Slam tournament title. This opportunity fell two wins short, but hope prevails.

“I always feel like I’m close,” Pegula said. “I’m one of the top players in the world.”

Anisimova and Sabalenka have recent history, with the American notching a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 upset win in this year’s Wimbledon semifinals. To hold the trophy for a second straight year, Sabalenka will have to reverse course.

“I think 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 of 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, and I feel like the key for me is going to be just go out there, of course, obviously fight, but also trust my decisions and go after my shots.”

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.