The Madison Keys extended their winning streak to 16 games and reached the BNP Paribas Open semi-finals on Thursday with a 6-1, 6-1 wipeout from the wildcard entry Belinda Vensik.
The Australian Open Champion and number 5 seed for the Indian Wells, Keys took just 65 minutes to set up a meeting with top seed Alina Sabalenka, who defeated Ludmila Samsonova 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday. The Keys defeated Sabalenka in three sets at Melbourne Park in January, with Sabalenka denying his third consecutive title.
The Bensik had been away from the upset of fourth seed Coco Gough in the fourth round, but the 28-year-old from Switzerland had no chance against the key to the fifth seed.
“I’m really excited,” Sabalenka said of the opportunity to play the keys again. “I really hope we can do a little better than we did in Australia.”
On the men’s side, two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz concluded his day’s actions by overcoming a 4-1 second-set deficit to beat Francisco Cerundro 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Iga Swiatek reached the semi-finals with the Indian Wells for four consecutive times to become the first woman to win the tournament three times. Poland’s second seed defeated China’s eighth seed Qinwen Zheng 6-3, 6-3 in the rematch of the Parisiolympic semi-finals that Zheng acquired last summer.
Defending champion Sweet has a 10-game winning streak in the California desert. The five-time Grand Slam champions also won the event in 2022. Zheng finished Swiatek’s 25-match winning streak at last year’s Olympics.
Swiatek converted all five breakpoints, but Zheng broke twice to win six matches. It fell in the tournaments where Swiatek Total participated in the match.
“Finally, it’s really windy and it needs to be adjusted immediately, especially if conditions change during a game, and it’s not that easy,” Swiatek says. “It was a weird match between all the breaks and everything, but I wanted to be composed and really focused.
Swiatek is next to 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva, after the ninth seeded 6-3 victory over Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.
After winning 10 straight wins, Andreva convincingly defeated Swiatek until he reached the title in Dubai last month. She is the youngest woman to reach the Indian Wells semi-finals since Maria Sharapova in 2005.
Alcaraz, who won 16 consecutive matches in the desert, will play Jack Draper next after sending American Ben Shelton 7-5 in a left-handed fight. Shelton, 22, was the youngest American since 2004 to reach the Indian Wells quarterfinals.
No. 5 Seed Medvedev took two hours and 25 minutes to bid on his third trip to the event final. This included a short delay in the third set when the Gusty winds blew up debris throughout the stadium.
After Medvedev, it’s Holger Rune. Holger Rune rallyed with a 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 victory over Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor to advance to his first Indian Wells semi-finals.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the report.