Amanda Anisimova beat Anastasya Pavlyuchenkova 6-1 7-6 (11-9) on a sunny late Tuesday afternoon to advance to her first semifinal at Wimbledon.
Anisimova won the first four games with two breaks of serve to race out to a 4-0 lead. She earned another break in the seventh game to seal the first set 6-1.
Anisimova did not convert two break points in the fourth game of the second set before breaking serve in the sixth game to open up a 5-2 lead. Pavlyuchenkova converted her third break back point in the ninth game as Anisimova was serving for the match at 5-3. Pavlyuchenkova saved two match points to draw level to 5-5 and came back from 0-30 at 6-5 to force the tie-break. Anisimova saved four set points before converting her second match point to win the tie-break 11-9. Anisimova ended the match with 26 winners.
Anisimova leads 4-0 in her head-to-head matches against Pavlyuchenkova and set a career-best of 11-2 on grass.
“It’s a super special turnaround for me, considering where I was a year ago and losing in the qualies here last year, which was a bit heartbreaking. I’ve done a lot of work since then, have really pushed my way through I feel like this year. I’ve dealt with some injuries and [gotten the better of] that and have worked on my physicality, also”, said Anisimova.
