Amanda Anisimova and Aryna Sabalenka pose following their Women’s Singles Final at the 2025 US Open Photo by Elsa/Getty Images
By Alix Ramsay
You cannot have a grand slam final – men’s or women’s – without tears. And lots of them.
At Wimbledon, it was Amanda Anisimova who could not hold back the torrent after she endured 57 minutes of professional humiliation, thrashed 6-0, 6-0 by Iga Swiatek.
She was exhausted by the effort of reaching her first major final; she was felled by nerves when she got there and then, when it was over, she wept and wept. Many in the crowd joined in as she sobbed her way through her on-court interview (although, in between the sniffles, she spoke extremely well).
At the US Open final, it was Aryna Sabalenka’s turn to cry like a baby. But these were not tears of disappointment or frustration; these were tears of relief. Finally, in her third grand slam final of the year, she had won. She had beaten Anisimova 6-3, 7-6(3) and when the final point was done, she sank to her knees and the tears flowed. And flowed some more.
The final was supposed to be Anisimova’s story of redemption: from losing in Wimbledon qualifying last year to reaching the final this summer, from that bruising encounter with Swiatek to her second grand slam final just a few weeks later. The fairy tale script had her winning and proving the doubters wrong. She could be the queen of New York and suddenly all would be well with the world.
Yet Sabalenka’s story was also one of redemption. She had her chances in the Australian Open final but she could not take them. Madison Keys played extremely well and was the deserved winner… but Sabalenka knew she could have been the one holding the trophy. Which is why she destroyed her racket when she returned to her chair.
But then, Aryna being Aryna, she explained that outburst of fury. She needed to let it out of her system so that she could come and speak to the crowd in the presentation ceremony and say the right things; to say that Maddie had beaten her fair and square, that Maddie was the champion and that Maddie had played a blinder to win. Because Aryna is a good person. She can be emotional but she means no one any harm.
When it came to Roland-Garros and her defeat at the hands of Coco Gauff, she was absolutely furious with herself. The conditions were difficult (it was windy and that wind swirled and played havoc with every shot) and Sabalenka stumped up 70 unforced errors.
Her press conference got her into all sorts of trouble. She basically said that she lost the final and Coco did not win it. But she said that 10 minutes after walking off court – no time to think, no time to calm down and no time to order her thoughts and speak in her second – or possibly third – language.
Gauff is grown up enough to understand what Sabalenka was going through and within a couple of days the two had exchanged messages (apologies from the runner up; it’s OK from the winner).
But the scar tissue was accumulating.
Sabalenka kept saying that she would learn from her mistakes in these finals. She said it again when she lost to Anisimova in the Wimbledon semis. But at the age of 27, learning new tricks ain’t easy. Learning how to supress your nature, to focus when your whole psyche is screaming “you screwed up” and your nerves are in shreds – that takes a lot of work. And putting the theory into practice take guts.
So it was that Sabalenka came out in New York all guns blazing for the first couple of points and then found herself in a battle. Anisimova’s backhand – a shot of remarkable destructive power but one hit with what appears to be such minimal effort – came back at her. Six minutes later, three break points saved and on her first game point, the world No.1 was ahead.
And then she broke. Anisimova broke back. The American broke again. Good grief, this could have gone on for days. Sabalenka had been broken just four times in the whole tournament and yet now, within 30 minutes, she had been broken twice.
The key was that while Anisimova was hitting far more winners, she was also racking up far more errors.
As Sabalenka broke yet again for a 5-3 lead, Naomi Cavaday in the Sky TV commentary box offered the thought that “all the unforced errors are coming at once for Anisimova – she needs to organise them better”. This floored her co-commentator, Martina Navratilova, for a moment. “Or maybe she needs not to make them at all,” the legend suggested. Just an idea. With her 18 grand slam singles titles, Martina was just running that one up the flag pole and seeing if anyone saluted.
Martina, as you would expect, was right. Sabalenka was clearly nervous at times but she was clearly the better player. Anisimova didn’t know how to apply constant pressure.
Into the second set, Sabalenka was more or less in charge until it got to the point where she was serving for the match. A bit nervy, a bit brass-necked (a 97mph second serve), she was hanging on until she dumped a sitter of smash into the net on break point.
Now we would see if Aryna had really changed. Could she suck this one up? Yes, she could.
“In the first set when she broke me back, and then at the end of the second set when she broke me back, there were two moments where I was really close to lose control,” she said. “But at that moment I told myself, no, it’s not going to happen. It’s absolutely OK.”
And then she dominated the tiebreak (her 19th consecutive tiebreak win and her 21st win in 22 tiebreak wins all year) and the title was hers.
What she had learned was like gold dust: “My mindset was just going out there, fight for every point. Doesn’t matter the situation. Just focus on myself and focus on things that I have to do to win the match.
“I think from what I understand today, that the lesson learned and I really hope it will never happen again [that I lose control] if I’m going to be playing another finals. I will be more in control.”
Obviously, one had to win and one had to lose. But for the purposes of next year’s grand slam season, Saturday’s result was perfect: Anisimova knows she can reach grand slam finals and now play well in them while Sabalenka knows she can control her emotions long enough to win the matches that could bring her more silverware.
