Amanda Anisimova: Grass Court Specialist After 2025 Wimbledon?

No player on the WTA Tour has won more grass court matches than Anisimova in 2025. The American, at 11 grass court wins, has already won more grass court matches than any other WTA player in 2024 and 2023; she surpassed Donna Vekic’s 10 wins in 2024 and Ekaterina Alexandrova’s 10 wins in 2023. When consistent, she’s shown fans that her flat and powerful groundstrokes adapt well to the surface.

But until this June, Anisimova hadn’t stepped on court for a main-draw grass court match since her last deep run at a Grand Slam, when she lost in the quarterfinals of the 2022 Wimbledon Championships. She fell to an in-form Simona Halep, and then largely faded from the WTA Tour and any shot at a deep Wimbledon run. After taking a mental health break in 2023, her ranking was too low for a main-draw Wimbledon appearance in 2024.

Anisimova began her 2025 grass court season at the WTA 500 event in London, taking out Top 10 players Emma Navarro and Qinwen Zheng. The win over Zheng pushed Anisimova into her first career grass-court final. There were challenges and ebbs and flows in that match — nine double faults and numerous breaks of serve on the fast courts — but Anisimova was able to hit strong forehands and serves when she needed to.

A disappointing final loss to Tatjana Maria followed in London, but a quarterfinal result soon after in Bad Homburg demonstrated the American’s resilience. In the second round, Anisimova came from a double-break down in the third set to take out Magdalena Fręch 6-2 4-6 6-3, a result that boosted her to a then-career-high ranking.

Winning at Wimbledon

Anisimova’s Wimbledon first round matchup was a tricky one: fans had eyes on Yulia Putintseva after she shocked Iga Swiatek at last year’s Wimbledon, and some thought the Kazakh could upset Anisimova. In less than an hour, the American dominated Putintseva 6-0 6-0, though she’s had to battle through her following four matches.

The American’s third round win over Dalma Gálfi was particularly tough, with 45 unforced errors flying off her racket compared to only 29 winners. In both that win, and her fourth round win over Linda Noskova, Anisimova had to fight back from a break down in the third set. She took out Gálfi 6-3 5-7 6-3, and Noskova 6-2 5-7 6-4 — somewhat similar scorelines that saw Anisimova dominate early, but forced her to play mentally tough tennis to withstand a late push from her opponent.

Her win over Pavlyuchenkova also resembled her earlier weekend matches. Leading 6-1 5-2, Anisimova’s game began to dwindle, and Pavlyuchenkova hit flatter and deeper groundstrokes to force errors. Pavlyuchenkova had five set points in the second-set tiebreak, but it was Anisimova who won by the slightest of margins after a 20-point tiebreaker.

There was certainly no sign of relaxation from the American, with Anisimova letting out a scream after missing a match point in the tiebreak, just before winning consecutive points to close out the match. Perhaps her best grass court points have come under this high pressure — where she’s able to swing freely on difficult shots, while still struggling on simpler ones that can cloud her mentality.

“I was definitely getting a bit nervous,” she said of the end of the match in Tuesday’s press conference, adding that she tried to hide her emotions and just wanted to “keep fighting.”

In the same press conference, Anisimova called her career comeback — 2025 and recent Wimbledon success — a “rollercoaster.”

“I feel like I’ve experienced many different moments and most importantly learned a lot of lessons,” she said. “Learned a lot about myself and how to handle certain situations. And I think that’s so important early on in this career.”

Anisimova, still just 23 years old, won’t be a massive underdog in her semifinal clash with Sabalenka. She leads the head-to-head 5-3, though she lost to Sabalenka at the 2025 French Open in a close two-setter.