Madison Keys, Iga Swiatek breeze into Indian Wells semifinals

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Madison Keys extended her winning 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. 3 seed at Indian Wells, needed just 65 minutes to set up a possible meeting with top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, who was playing Liudmila Samsonova later in the day. Keys beat Sabalenka in three sets in January at Melbourne Park, denying Sabalenka a third consecutive title.

Bencic, a 28-year-old from Switzerland, was coming off an upset of No. 4 seed Coco Gauff in the fourth round, but she never had a chance against Keys.

Iga Swiatek reached the semifinals at Indian Wells for the fourth consecutive time in her bid to be the first woman to win the tournament three times. 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 last summer won by Zheng.

Swiatek, the defending champion, has a 10-match winning streak in the California desert. The five-time Grand Slam champion also won the event in 2022. Zheng ended Swiatek’s 25-match winning streak at the Olympics last year.

Swiatek converted all five of her break points, but Zheng broke twice on her way to winning six games, matching the total Swiatek had dropped in the tournament coming into the match.

On the men’s side, Daniil Medvedev reached the Indian Wells semifinals for the third consecutive year, earning a tight 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7) victory over 20-year-old Frenchman Arthur Fils.

The 29-year-old Russian, seeded fifth, needed two hours and 25 minutes to keep alive a bid for a third trip to the final of the event. That included a brief delay in the third set when gusty winds blew debris all over the stadium.

Mirra Andreeva advanced to the women’s semifinals with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Elina Svitolina. Holger Rune moved on to his first Indian Wells semifinal by rallying for a 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 win over Tallon Griekspoor.

Source: espn.com