A little more than two years ago, Amanda 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.

Amanda Anisimova tore up the script and soared into her maiden Wimbledon final by outclassing world number one Aryna Sabalenka with fierce determination and fearless shot-making on Thursday and will meet Iga Swiatek for a shot at Grand Slam glory.