Anisimova has surprised even herself with how quickly she moved on from her loss at the All England Club.
“Truly the most that I felt bad was for the people that had come to watch that day,” she said.
“I know how much people pay for those tickets and are excited to see Wimbledon. I kind of had that guilt on my back, as opposed to winning my first Grand Slam final.
“On the court I was crying and maybe [for] 30 minutes afterwards, but then I got on the phone with someone and I kind of laughed it off.
“At the end of the day to me it was just tennis. I’m in a really good place in my life. I’m happy every single day, which I wasn’t a couple of years ago.”
Having gone out in the early stages of the hard-court tournaments in Montreal and Cincinnati, Anisimova said her early-round matches in New York were played with “a little bit of fear”.
However, her confidence has grown across the fortnight – as shown in her brilliantly fearless ball-striking against Swiatek.
“I told myself: you can’t go into the match with any fear,” she said.
“Today, I really came out there with not an ounce of fear.
When Swiatek took her serve in the opening game, flashbacks of Wimbledon surfaced.
“When I wasn’t able to hold in that first game, I was like OK, here we go,” she said.
But this time around Anisimova did not waver – attacking the six-time major winner’s serve to immediately break back.
Anisimova displayed superb skill on the backhand side and moved impressively throughout, hitting 23 winners as her big-hitting game flustered Swiatek.
She enjoyed success on the Pole’s second serve – winning 12 of 17 points from it – and found the break at the crucial moment to take the opening set.
Swiatek left the court between sets and returned full of intensity, again breaking immediately but this time consolidating with a hold.
Anisimova could be forgiven for thinking back to Wimbledon but she did not waver, keeping her cool and rescuing the break two games later.
Heavily backed by a home crowd, Anisimova broke in the eighth game to serve for victory – which she did in composed fashion to reach a third Grand Slam semi-final.
