Iga Swiatek reaches first Wimbledon final

More comfortable on grass courts than ever, Iga Swiatek played as well as she ever has on the slick surface – well, better than ever, actually – to reach her first Wimbledon final by defeating Belinda Bencic 6-2, 6-0 at Centre Court on Thursday.

Swiatek will face Amanda Anisimova for the trophy on Saturday. Whoever wins will be the eighth consecutive first-time women's champion at the All England Club.

"I never even dreamt that it's going to be possible for me to play in the final," said Swiatek, who has won five Grand Slam titles elsewhere and spent most of 2022, 2023 and 2024 at No. 1 in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings.

Good as she is on clay courts, especially, and hard courts, too, Swiatek only once had been as far as the quarterfinals at Wimbledon until this week.

"I'm just super excited and just proud of myself," the 24-year-old from Poland said after wrapping up the victory over Bencic in just 71 minutes. "Tennis keeps surprising me. I thought I lived through everything, even though I'm young. I thought I experienced everything on the court. But I didn't experience playing well on grass. That's the first time."

There were signs of a breakthrough right before Wimbledon: She made her first career final on grass in a tournament at Bad Homburg, Germany – losing to Jessica Pegula, then crying on court – and that also happened to be her first final at any event in more than a year.

Now she is one win away from ending her overall championship drought and adding to the Grand Slam hardware she already has earned: four titles at the French Open and one at the U.S. Open.

She is 5-0 in major finals, while Anisimova, a 23-year-old from the United States, will be making her debut in that round at a major. The two played each other as juniors when they were teens but never have met as professionals.

Amanda Anisimova upsets World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka

A little more than two years ago, Anisimova took a break from tennis because of burnout. A year ago, working her way back into the game, the American lost when she had to go through qualifying for Wimbledon because her ranking of 189th was too low to get into the main bracket automatically.

Look at Anisimova now: She's a Grand Slam finalist for the first time after upsetting No. 1-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in a compelling contest at a steamy Centre Court.

The 13th-seeded Anisimova, who was born in New Jersey and grew up in Florida, was playing in her second major semifinal after losing at that stage at the 2019 French Open at age 17.

"This doesn't feel real right now," Anisimova said after ending the two-hour, 36-minute contest with a forehand winner on her fourth match point. "I was absolutely dying out there. I don't know how I pulled it out."

She is guaranteed to break into the top 10 of the WTA rankings for the first time next week, no matter what happens in the title match.

"If you told me I would be in the final of Wimbledon, I would not believe you," Anisimova said with a laugh. "At least not this soon, because it's been a year turnaround since coming back and to be in this spot, it's not easy. ... To be in the final is just indescribable, honestly."

For Sabalenka, 0-3 in semifinals at the All England Club, this defeat prevented her from becoming the first woman to reach four consecutive Grand Slam finals since Serena Williams won four major trophies in a row a decade ago.