US Open women’s final: Can Amanda Anisimova bounce back from Wimbledon final nightmare against the defending champion?
Grand slam finals are often framed as simple battles for silverware. But It’s Saturday, the US Open women’s singles championship is about something deeper: redemption, resilience, and reputation.
On one end, Amanda Anisimova walks into Arthur Ashe Stadium carrying the weight of Wimbledon’s ghosts. Eight weeks ago, she endured a defeat so brutal it felt career-defining: a 6–0, 6–0 dismantling at the hands of Iga Świątek, the kind of loss that usually lingers in highlight reels and scars in silence.
On the other end, Aryna Sabalenka arrives as the world No. 1, a defending champion with power to spare, but also a narrative she hasn’t yet shaken—one that suggests she falters when the stakes are highest.
This isn’t just a match. It’s a referendum on both their legacies.
Anisimova’s Courageous Response to Wimbledon Collapse
It’s easy to say athletes should “learn from defeat.” It’s much harder when the defeat is historic humiliation on one of the sport’s grandest stages. At Wimbledon, Anisimova became the first woman in the Open Era to fail to win a single game in the final. She wept. She looked broken. Many wondered if she’d ever recover.
But champions aren’t measured by how gracefully they win; they’re defined by how fiercely they come back.
At Flushing Meadows, Anisimova has flipped the script. She dismissed Świątek in the quarterfinals—sweet revenge delivered with 23 winners. She survived Naomi Osaka in a gritty semifinal, clawing back momentum in a tense second-set tiebreak. And suddenly, she’s back in another final, at her home slam, with the crowd at her back.
Her words after the semifinal said it all: “I think it just shows that I’ve worked really hard on my mental game. Even when it feels like, ‘What’s there to believe in?’ I found something to hold onto.”
That’s not just growth—it’s defiance.
Sabalenka’s Struggle for Control
And then there’s Sabalenka. At 27, she is indisputably the most powerful player in the women’s game. She’s been world No. 1 by a comfortable margin, has appeared in nearly every grand slam semifinal or final for the past two years, and she already owns last year’s US Open crown.
But her season tells a different story. Australian Open final? Lost. Roland Garros? Lost. Wimbledon semifinal? Outplayed by Anisimova. Her critics see a player who dominates until the final chapters, only to unravel under pressure.
To her credit, Sabalenka has acknowledged her shortcomings. At Roland Garros, she admits, she let her emotions run wild. “That’s not me,” she said in New York. “It won’t happen again.”
So far, she’s kept her promise. Four straight-set wins. A bye through the quarters thanks to an injured opponent. And a semifinal where she recovered from dropping her first set of the tournament to overwhelm Jessica Pegula with raw force.
But if Wimbledon exposed anything, it’s that Sabalenka’s undoing is often self-inflicted. Her words before the final were telling: “In London, I doubted too much. That gave her chances. I can’t let that happen again.”
This final isn’t about talent—she has plenty. It’s about conviction.
The Bigger Picture
So what’s at stake Saturday? For Anisimova, victory would complete one of the most remarkable turnarounds in recent memory: from a double-bagel humiliation to a grand slam champion in just 53 days. For Sabalenka, a successful title defense would silence whispers of fragility and cement her place as the era’s true dominant force.
Both players enter with something to prove, and both arrive with fresh scars from Wimbledon. One will leave Arthur Ashe Stadium transformed, not just by the trophy in hand but by the narrative rewritten.
The US Open women’s final isn’t simply another major showdown. It’s a duel between redemption and validation—and only one will survive the spotlight.