The women’s final headlines Saturday's play at the 2025 US Open, as defending champion and top seed Aryna Sabalenka squares off with first-time Flushing finalist Amanda Anisimova, seeded No. 8. It has been a brilliant run for both women in reaching this point, but they now approach the finish line knowing full well that only one can finish first.
Sabalenka is familiar with the feeling of standing alone here; Anisimova has never before been here. The top seed is an established powerful presence in the game; her opponent has utilized this tournament to announce her presence with authority. Here are two tremendous talents in hot pursuit of one prestigious title. If you enjoy fireworks, you’ve come to the right place.
Sabalenka, the No. 1 woman in the sport, looked untouchable in the early going here, racing through her first four matches without dropping a set. But after advancing through the quarters by walkover when her scheduled opponent, Marketa Vondrousova, withdrew with a knee injury, the 27-year-old three-time Slam champ experienced the only hiccup in her advance, dropping the first set of her semifinal against Jessica Pegula. But as the greats all seem to have an uncanny ability to do, Sabalenka suddenly found another gear and accelerated past the American to grab a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win that punched her ticket to a third consecutive Flushing finale.
The top seed, also champion at the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024, has this year been stopped short in her pursuit of adding to her major hardware collection. She’s finished second at both the Aussie Open and Roland Garros, and lost in the semis at Wimbledon. All that said, Sabalenka has now reached at least the semifinals in 11 of the last 12 majors in which she’s played, and she’s the first woman to reach five consecutive US Open semifinals since Serena Williams' six from 2011-2016. She’s likewise the first woman to appear in three straight US Open finals since Serena Williams went three-for-three from 2012-2014. Any time you share a line of the record book with Serena Williams, you’re doing something right.
And Sabalenka is going to need to do everything right if she’s going to get past Anisimova today. The 24-year-old American, who had never before been past the third round here before in five previous tries, is now into her second major final of 2025, also playing her way into the Wimbledon final in July, only to suffer a tough 6-0, 6-0 loss at the hands of Iga Swiatek. But it sure seems as though getting fed those two bagels has increased her appetite for success, because here, Anisimova has been unstoppable, playing a power game with incredible precision and handling the pressure of performing at this stage on the game’s biggest stage as if she’d been here many times before. From the start, she’s acted like she owns this place, and now, she pretty much does.
Against two-time US Open champion Naomi Osaka in the semis, the No. 8 seed rose to every occasion. And there were plenty of occasions. Unflustered after losing the first set, the American dug in and blasted away, painting lines on cement like a highway worker. Most important, she showed the singular sort of toughness that plays particularly well in New York, eventually wearing down the former champ to claim a 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-3 win in a marvelous marathon that lasted just four minutes shy of three hours. Lots of players lose those sort of matches. Champions tend to win them. Anisimova is playing very much like a champion.
It might come as a surprise, but the American actually owns a hefty 6-3 advantage over the top seed, with the two splitting a pair of major-tournament meetings this year, Sabalenka winning in the fourth round of the French and Anisimova finishing first in the Wimbledon semis.
From the start of this tournament, Anisimova has personified the idea of “refuse to lose.” Power. Poise. Presence. That’s way too many “P’s” to fathom an “L.” This should be a good one, so you should probably get familiar with the edge of your seat. Ten different women have won the US Open singles title in the last 11 years, so why not make it 11 in 12? In a thrilling three, Anisimova is the 2025 US Open women’s singles champion.
