Women's world number one and defending US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka has beaten American Jessica Pegula — and the crowd — to advance to the final at Flushing Meadows.
In a rematch of last year's final, Sabalenka and Pegula delivered fierce groundstrokes, brilliant play and nerves in a dramatic semifinal before the Belarusian top seed prevailed 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Sabalenka had the easier preparation, receiving a walkover into the semifinal after Marketa Vondrousova had a flare up of a knee injury in practice and withdrew before the match.
However Sabalenka took a while to hit her stride on Arthur Ashe Stadium before making the break and then consolidating for a 4-2 lead.
But then, buoyed by vocal home court support, Pegula reeled off four straight games to take the opening set 6-4.
The second set saw the momentum swing again, with Sabalenka finding her feet and crushing 15 winners to seven for Pegula, as she fought back to level the match six games to three.
The final set saw the tension ratchet up a few notches, as Sabalenka got the early break in the opening game.
The crowd were willing Pegula to find a way back to get the answering break, but every time she created a break point chance, her opponent found a winner, usually painting the lines with incredibly accurate and powerful groundstrokes.
As time ran out, Pegula tried desperately to get the break but after a dramatic final game, the champion crushed one last forehand into the corner and took the match in 2 hours and 5 minutes.
When it ended on Sabalenka's third match point — after two bad errors on her initial chances — she rocked back on her heels, spread her arms and screamed.
Sabalenka moved one victory away from becoming the first woman to claim consecutive championships at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams clinched three in a row from 2012 to 2014.
This match-up was much closer than the straight-set triumph for Sabalenka over Pegula 12 months ago that gave the 27-year-old from Belarus her third Grand Slam title, all on hard courts.
Since then, Sabalenka was the runner-up to Madison Keys at the Australian Open in January and to Coco Gauff at the French Open in June, then was eliminated in the Wimbledon semifinals by Anisimova in July.
Anisimova climbs off the deck to down Osaka
Amanda Anisimova eliminated four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-3 in a U.S. Open semifinal that ended at nearly 1 a.m. Friday and featured two of the most powerful first-strike hitters in women's tennis.
The No. 8-seeded Anisimova, a 24-year-old who was born in New Jersey and grew up in Florida, reached her second straight major final by coming through after 2 hours, 56 minutes.
"I wasn't sure I would make it past the finish line and I tried to dig deep," said Anisimova, who needed three match points to get the job done. "It was a huge fight out there today."
When it was over, Anisimova yelled, "Let's go!" and enjoyed the moment by kneeling on the court and leaning forward.
At Wimbledon in July, Anisimova had a Grand Slam breakthrough, making it all the way to the title match before losing 6-0, 6-0 to Iga Swiatek.
But Anisimova recovered from that quickly enough and well enough to get past Swiatek in two sets in the U.S. Open quarterfinals.
Now Anisimova is the first opponent to beat Osaka — a former No. 1 player who was seeded No. 23 in New York — this late in a Grand Slam tournament.
Before this loss, Osaka had been a combined 14-0 over her career in major quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, with two trophies apiece from the U.S. Open and Australian Open.
Asked what allowed her to win, Anisimova replied: "Oh, my God. I don't know. I mean, Naomi is playing amazing tennis. She's back where she belongs."
Well, Anisimova did it by forgetting about the opening set, and forgetting about a 6-5 deficit in the second.
She also did it by not holding anything back down the stretch, going for — and delivering — big groundstrokes that usually landed deep in the court and right where she wanted them.
That tends to be Osaka's style, too, but she was not quite able to keep up in the late going and took some pills a trainer gave her after examining her left foot in the third set.
Both players frequently went over to the corners of the court to look up at their coaches and trade words.
Osaka showed frustration after getting broken in the second set by smacking a ball in anger off the blue court and then tossing her racket toward the sideline.
Osaka pounded serves at up to 191 km/h and produced 15 aces. Anisimova's purest-in-the-sport backhand and almost-as-good forehand helped her compile 50 winners, 18 more than Osaka.
"Sometimes, I was like, 'How are we making these shots?'" Anisimova said. "But we were."
It's true, both were. But Anisimova made more.
ABC/AP
