World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka takes on the American Amanda Anisimova with a spot in the Wimbledon final on the line on Thursday morning.
Let’s break it all down with some odds from the DraftKings Sportsbook.
Aryna Sabalenka vs. Amanda Anisimova prediction, preview
The world’s top-ranked player, Aryna Sabalenka, is seeking her first Wimbledon title and is now just two wins away. Sabalenka has been on an amazing run in Grand Slams over the last few seasons, but is yet to get the top prize at Wimbledon. In the last ten Grand Slams that she’s participated in, not including this one, Sabalenka has made at least the semifinals in nine of them, the final in six of them and won three of them. Sabalenka’s three Grand Slam victories have all come on hard surfaces. In order to go down as one of the greats, she needs to prove that she can do it on another surface. Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam where Sabalenka has never even made the final, so this would be another milestone in her career just to win Thursday’s match.
Amanda Anisimova is in her second-career Grand Slam semifinal. Her first trip was at the 2019 French Open when she was just 17-years-old. It has been a fascinating career path for Anisimova. She was one of the world’s best junior players and then immediately broke onto the scene at 16 by knocking off top ten players and making a WTA Tour Final. She then defeated the, at the time, No. 11 player in the world, Aryna Sabalenka, at the Australian Open and went on a Cinderella run to the semifinals at Roland Garros. She looked poised to be the next big thing in the sport, but the COVID period seemed to disrupt her progress. She had an up-and-down few seasons before announcing that she would be taking a break from tennis in May 2023 due to mental health reasons.
It was unclear whether we would ever see Anisimova play tennis again, let alone reach her potential as one of the most talented players in the world. Luckily, she did return and started to find her old form at the end of 2024. She has been fantastic so far in 2025, winning her first-ever WTA 1000 title in Qatar and rising to No. 12 in the world with a few other strong performances. She is now back in a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time since that incredible run at Roland Garros in 2019. No matter what happens in this match, Anisimova is guaranteed to be a top-ten player in the world in the post-Wimbledon rankings.
Sabalenka vs. Anisimova pick, best bet
It should be a fantastic match between Aryna Sabalenka and Amanda Anisimova. Sabalenka is the best player in the world, but grass has been by far her worst surface throughout her career. Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam venue where she has never reached the final, and she has a 63% career winning percentage on grass, compared to 73% on both clay and hard. Anisimova is in great form on grass, having just beaten World No. 10 Emma Navarro and World No. 5 Zheng Qinwen en route to the Queen’s Club Championship final in June.
These two have a storied history against each other. Early in her career, Anisimova made a name for herself by upsetting Sabalenka at both the 2019 Australian Open and the 2019 French Open. Sabalenka has since gotten her revenge, beating her in the Round of 16 at the Australian Open in 2024 and in the Round of 16 at Roland Garros earlier this year. However, in their eight career meetings, Anisimova has won five. She has her upsets as a teenager, but Anisimova also beat Sabalenka just last year in Toronto.
This would be a truly full-circle moment for Amanda Anisimova if she could knock off Sabalenka in this match. She burst onto the scene by upsetting Sabalenka in two separate Grand Slams as a 17-year-old. After a rough road, which included a few months away from the sport, she is finally back in a Grand Slam semifinal, and facing Sabalenka once again. If there is any surface where Sabalenka is ripe for the picking, it’s here on grass. The stars are aligned for Amanda Anisimova, and at odds of +195 on DraftKings Sportsbook, I am taking a shot on her to defeat the best player in the world. Anisimova will finally get the chance to show off her incredible talent on the biggest stage and reach her first-ever Grand Slam final.
