Sabalenka plays Pegula, and Osaka meets Anisimova in the US Open women's semifinals

NEW YORK (AP) — Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula have started their match Thursday night in the U.S. Open women's semifinals at Arthur Ashe Stadium. After that ends, Naomi Osaka and Amanda Anisimova will meet in the second semifinal. Defending champion Sabalenka against Pegula is a rematch of last year's final. Thursday's winners will play against each other for the championship on Saturday. Sabalenka beat Pegula 7-5, 7-5 for the 2024 U.S. Open title to collect her third Grand Slam trophy, all on hard courts. Since then, Sabalenka was the runner-up to Madison Keys at the Australian Open in January and to Coco Gauff at the French Open in June, then was eliminated in the Wimbledon semifinals by Anisimova in July. Sabalenka, a 27-year-old from Belarus, is seeded No. 1 in New York. No. 4 Pegula, an American whose parents own the NFL's Buffalo Bills and NHL's Buffalo Sabres, was trying to reach her second major final. She has rebounded well after losing in the first round at Wimbledon. No. 8 Anisimova, also from the United States, hoped to get to her second consecutive Slam title match after losing at that stage to Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon by a 6-0, 6-0 score. Anisimova shook that off impressively and beat Swiatek in the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open on Wednesday. No. 23 Osaka, who was born in Japan and grew up in the U.S., has the most Grand Slam trophies of any of woman left in the field, with four. She won the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2020, and the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021. Osaka eliminated Gauff in the fourth round and owns a career record of 13-0 combined across major quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. But Osaka last made it this far at one of the sport's biggest tournaments 4 1/2 years ago. At the French Open in 2021, she spoke publicly for the first time about dealing with anxiety and depression, then took the first of a series of mental-health breaks, helping usher in a global conversation about well-being. Osaka also was away from the tour for 17 months while on maternity leave; her daughter, Shai, was born in July 2023.