INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Madison Keys prolonged her profitable streak to 16 matches, reaching the BNP Paribas Open semifinals with a 6-1, 6-1 wipeout of wild-card entry Belinda Bencic on Thursday.
Keys, the Australian Open champion and the No. 5 seed at Indian Wells, wanted simply 65 minutes to arrange a gathering with top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated Liudmila Samsonova 6-2, 6-3 later Thursday. Keys beat Sabalenka in three units in January at Melbourne Park, denying Sabalenka a 3rd consecutive title.
Bencic was coming off an upset of No. 4 seed Coco Gauff within the fourth spherical, however the 28-year-old from Switzerland by no means had an opportunity in opposition to the fifth-seeded Keys.
“I am actually excited,” Sabalenka mentioned of the chance to play Keys once more. “I actually hope I can perform a little bit higher than I did in Australia.”
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On the boys’s aspect, two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz closed out the day’s motion by overcoming a 4-1 second-set deficit to defeat Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6 (4), and Daniil Medvedev reached the Indian Wells semifinals for the third consecutive 12 months, incomes a decent 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7) victory over 20-year-old Frenchman Arthur Fils.
Iga Swiatek reached the semifinals at Indian Wells for the fourth consecutive time in her bid to be the primary girl to win the event thrice. The No. 2 seed from Poland beat eighth-seeded Qinwen Zheng of China 6-3, 6-3 in a rematch of a Paris Olympics semifinal from final summer season gained by Zheng.
Swiatek, the defending champion, has a 10-match profitable streak within the California desert. The five-time Grand Slam champion additionally gained the occasion in 2022. Zheng ended Swiatek’s 25-match profitable streak on the Olympics final 12 months.
Swiatek transformed all 5 of her break factors, however Zheng broke twice on her method to profitable six video games, matching the entire Swiatek had dropped within the event coming into the match.
“On the finish it acquired actually windy, which made it tremendous difficult, particularly when the circumstances change through the match you’ll want to regulate shortly and it isn’t that simple,” Swiatek mentioned. “It was a bizarre match with all of the breaks and all the things, however I wished to be composed and actually targeted, and I am glad that I did that.”
Up subsequent for Swiatek will probably be 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva, after the No. 9 seed’s 7-5, 6-3 win over Ukrainian Elina Svitolina.
Andreeva, who has gained 10 straight matches, beat Swiatek convincingly en path to the title in Dubai final month and is the youngest girl to achieve the semifinals at Indian Wells since Maria Sharapova in 2005.
Alcaraz, who gained his sixteenth consecutive match within the desert, will subsequent play Jack Draper after the Briton dispatched American Ben Shelton 6-4, 7-5 in a battle of lefties. Shelton, 22, was the youngest American man to achieve the quarterfinals at Indian Wells since 2004.
No. 5 seed Medvedev wanted two hours and 25 minutes to maintain alive a bid for a 3rd journey to the ultimate of the occasion. That included a quick delay within the third set when gusty winds blew particles all around the stadium.
Subsequent up for Medvedev is Holger Rune, who moved on to his first Indian Wells semifinal by rallying for a 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 win over Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor.
The Related Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
