Two-time champion Iga Swiatek continued her march at Indian Wells with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Karolina Muchova on Tuesday to achieve the quarterfinals.
Swiatek, a former world No. 1, has dropped solely six video games since arriving to the California desert occasion and shoved apart Muchova with a near-flawless efficiency, with solely 4 errors in opposition to a dozen winners whereas by no means going through a break level.
She is aiming to change into the primary girl to win the 1000-level match thrice, after serving a one-month suspension late final yr for a failed drug check.
After ready by a rain delay, Swiatek took speedy maintain of the momentum, sprinting by the primary 4 video games and never dropping a first-serve level within the opening set.
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Muchova, who loved an impressed run to the US Open semifinals final yr after recovering from wrist surgical procedure, was unable to search out her degree within the second set because the errors piled up.
“Typically matches could be fairly bizarre,” Swiatek mentioned. “It is sufficient for one participant to not really feel good and the opposite to really feel nice. Then abruptly the distinction is far greater than it often is.
“We practiced final week, and we had a fairly related degree. It is tennis. Issues like that may occur. However for certain I used my alternatives, and I used to my possibilities, and I used to be fairly centered and composed. It isn’t straightforward, however I can think about that it appears to be like prefer it.”
Swiatek completed the match in 57 minutes with an unreturnable serve. She may face a extra stern check when she meets Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng, who beat Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk 6-3, 6-2 to shut out the night time session on the principle court docket.
Kostyuk’s compatriot, Elina Svitolina, had earlier shocked American fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 in a match that was stalled for 3 hours by rain.
Svitolina, the No. 23 seed, will make her first quarterfinal look in six years when she takes on ninth-seeded Mirra Andreeva, who thumped 2023 champion Elena Rybakina 6-1, 6-2 in a little bit over an hour.
Andreeva, 17, is on monitor for back-to-back Masters trophies after her run to the Dubai title.
Data from Reuters was used on this report.
