Wimbledon 2025, Day 11 Semi-Finals: Anisimova Stuns Sabalenka; Świątek Storms Past Benicic

Writer-editor Harsh Pareek brings you all the courtside drama, flair and finesse from Wimbledon 2025, in #ServeAndVolley.

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IT WAS A SWELTERING DAY AT SW19 as temperatures soared on Centre Court with the two women's semi-final matches scheduled for the day. With a new champion guaranteed this year, it was a test for all four involved, none of whom has ever even made it to the Wimbledon final before.

Stepping out first were the world number one Aryna Sabalenka and 13th seeded American Amanda Anisimova. While the Belarusian was the favourite on paper, the two had met eight times before over the years, with Anisimova coming out on top on five of those occasions.

For Sabalenka, it was not only an opportunity to move towards adding a fourth Grand Slam title to her trophy cabinet, but also to leave behind a disappointing French Open final loss, and its aftermath, just a few weeks back. For the American, it was yet another chapter in a stunning turnaround which saw her taking a break from tennis some two years ago for her mental health and burnout — travelling, studying and taking up painting — then subsequently making her way back into the sport but failing to qualify for Wimbledon last year, ranked 189.

What would follow over the next two hours and thirty-eight minutes is one of *the* matches of the tournament, a true test of nerves not just for the two players, but everyone watching along as well. 

It was clear from the get-go that Anisimova was in no mood to follow the script. If anything, she seemed undaunted by the effects of Sabalenka's power and aggression, bringing some of her own to the game. With enviable accuracy and poise, the American took the first set 6-4.

An increasingly frustrated — though a far cry from her Roland-Garros final meltdown — Sabalenka hit back, bringing some variation to her game with slices and drop shots (a page seemingly taken right out of her quarter-final opponent Laura Siegemund’s playbook), almost breaking the American's serve at 5-3 to take the set, but managed to do it 6-4 in a reversal of the previous one. But Anisimova's weapons of choice, her backhand and serve, were proving to be the Belarusian's undoing. As Sabalenka's ever-louder grunts and screams of exasperation filled the arena, the score once again mirrored that of the previous two sets.

Having pushed past losing the second and having her serve broken to start the third, Anisimova dug in and closed the match 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, using three match points to break her opponent's serve in the end. And so the incredible comeback story continues.

For Sabalenka, it was the third time in three Grand Slams this year that she has been knocked out by an American (Madison Keys in the Australian Open, Coco Gauff in the French; both in the final), but there were positives to take away as well, especially in how she managed to hold it together. As for Anisimova, she will now break into the top 10 of the WTA rankings for the first time next week, regardless of the result. "This doesn't feel real right now, honestly … I was absolutely dying out there. I don’t know how I pulled it off," she said in her post-match interview. "It's been a year of turnaround since coming back and to be in this spot."

It's also been quite the year for the Americans on the women's side of the Grand Slam singles, and now Anisimova has a chance to make it three in three this Saturday.

After that exhausting (in the best way possible) watch, it was understandable that the Centre Court might take a minute to get its voice back for the second semi-final of the day — the only remaining unseeded player in the singles draw, Belinda Bencic, against the eighth-seeded Iga Świątek (both of whom played their quarter-final matches just yesterday). But the match proved to be the antithesis of the one before.

On a day when proceedings were interrupted thrice because of spectators feeling unwell in the relentless heat, one imagines it was only the sound of the hand fans that kept the two players company in an exceptionally one-sided contest that only lasted 71 minutes.

That's all it took for an effortless-looking Świątek to brush her opponent aside 6-2, 6-0. Energetic and positive, the Pole took the game to Bencic, who's had a phenomenal run in the tournament — just a little over a year after giving birth and falling to almost 500 in the ranks — but seemed to have finally run out of steam.

Świątek on the other hand, who was the 2018 Wimbledon girls' singles junior champion but has had an estranged relationship with grass courts since, was having the time of her life now — gliding up the baseline to attack, never breaking a sweat, looking unplayable. All was said and done while the sunlight still cast shadows in the arena.

"Tennis keeps surprising me, I thought I lived through everything even though I’m young. I thought I'd experienced everything on the court," she said after the match. "I didn’t experience playing well on grass so that’s the first time, and I’m super excited and enjoying it."

Świątek and Anisimova, who have never met before on the WTA Tour, will now play in the final to claim the coveted Venus Rosewater Dish. Saturday’s winner will also be the eighth consecutive first-time Wimbledon women’s champion. Never a dull day on the women's tour.

Matches to watch today:

Taylor Fritz vs Carlos Alcaraz (SF) 

Jannik Sinner vs Novak Djokovic (SF)