Amanda Anisimova had no problem making it into the Melbourne Summer Set 2 final on Saturday. The American defeated Daria Kasatkina 6: 2, 6: 0 in a 56-minute semi-final and meets the Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich on Sunday.
“I’m happy with the way I found my rhythm this week and I’ve played it game after game and I think my performance got better every day,” said Anisimova after her win.
The win breaks a nearly three-year drought since Anisimova’s last final, which took place in April 2019, when she won her first WTA individual title in Bogota over Astra Sharma. In fact, this week marked her first semi-final on tour in exactly two years, when she lost among the final four to Serena Williams in Auckland 2020.
However, Anisimova continued her domination of Kasatkina to achieve this goal. Anisimova had also beaten the Russian in straight sets in their only previous encounter, which took place two years ago at the aforementioned Auckland tournament.
“Last year I trained really hard and I think the results weren’t really there. It was really disappointing to get bad results week after week,” said Anisimova. “But just holding my head up and knowing that the work would eventually pay off and just work smarter, I think that helped me.
“I’m in a really good headspace earlier this year and I’m just grateful for every tournament I get to play. And I’m just super happy and excited to go into every game and I think that’s the most important thing.” “
Amanda Anisimova reached out to Darren Cahill during the off-season and really enjoyed his help in Melbourne this week. “We’re just getting started and getting to know each other. We’ll see how it goes and hopefully it can be a long-term thing. I hope that will be the case. “
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Kasatkina never held the serve on Saturday, and Anisimova converted seven of her 11 breakpoints on the way to a quick win. Anisimova returned Kasatkina’s second serve particularly ruthlessly, with the American scooping a whopping 82 percent of those points.
Aliaksandra Sasnovich rally stunned Ann Li in the second semifinals
Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus always finds a way to play her best tennis in Australia and the world number 107 hit again in Melbourne this week. The 27-year-old plays in her first semi-final since 2019 in Sydney and is in her first final since 2018 in Brisbane after beating number 7 seed Ann Li 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-3.
After reaching a career high at No. 30 in 2018, Sasnovich enjoyed a resurrection in her last three tournaments. She beat consecutive top 50 opponents in Indian Wells last fall, beating Emma Raducanu and Simona Halep, and repeated that feat this week by beating Clara Tauson and Li.
Sasnovich attributed her character to her comeback win over Li on Saturday. Neither woman had lost a set in the tournament, but Li looked like the stronger player early on. In her fourth Tour semi-final, the 21-year-old American led 5-2 in the first set. But Sasnovich’s forehand would prove the difference in the match, and she flipped the opening sentence when she found her range. Sasnovich lost a setpoint on her serve with 4-5 and sealed her comeback with a narrow tie-break, 7-4.
Li quickly recovered to win the second set and force a decision, but Sasnovich quickly jumped 3-0 up and never looked back. On Sunday she will try to win her first WTA title, having previously reached two finals.
“I’m ready to play. I’m 100% ready,” said Sasnovich. “I’m sure it will be a very interesting game. Amanda is a great player with one of the best techniques on tour for me.”
