Staff Reporter.
Defending champion Iga Swiatek cruised past Zheng Qinwen to set up an Indian Wells semi-final against teenager Mirra Andreeva.
Zheng beat Swiatek on the way to winning gold at last year’s Paris Olympics – but she was no match for the Pole in their first meeting since.
The world number two led by a set and a double break before bad weather led to play being suspended.
It only delayed the inevitable, however, with China’s Zheng winning two games after the delay before Swiatek closed out a 6-3 6-3 victory.
“It was a weird match with all the breaks and everything, but I wanted to be composed and really focused and I’m glad that I did that,” Swiatek said.
Swiatek, 23, could become the only woman since Martina Navratilova in 1990 and 1991 to win back-to-back Indian Wells titles.
The five-time major winner was champion in 2022, lost in the semi-finals in 2023, and triumphed again last year.
She will next face 17-year-old Andreeva, who stunned Swiatek in the quarter-finals in Dubai last month.
Andreeva, who went on to win the Dubai title, beat Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 7-5 6-3 to reach the last four and extend her winning streak to 10 matches.
World number one Aryna Sabalenka will face Madison Keys in a rematch of January’s Australian Open final in the other semi-final in California.
Sabalenka was the two-time defending champion at the first major of the year but lost to American Keys in a high-quality Melbourne final.
The Belarusian, who took the top ranking from Swiatek in October, admitted she had been struggling to find her “hunger” after the final in Australia and lost early in Qatar and Dubai in February.
However, she has yet to drop a set in California and has moved through the draw with relative ease.
Her 6-2 6-3 victory over Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova set up a rematch with Keys, who has had a superb start to the season.
“I’m really excited and I really hope I can do a little bit better than I did in Australia,” Sabalenka said.
Keys is on a 16-match winning streak, having triumphed at the Adelaide International before clinching her first major in Melbourne.
She swept aside Belinda Bencic 6-1 6-1 to reach a first Indian Wells semi-final.
Britain’s Olivia Nicholls and Slovak partner Tereza Mihalikova reached the women’s doubles final with a 7-5 6-3 win over fifth seeds Hsieh Su-Wei and Zhang Shuai.
Meanwhile Jack Draper beat big-serving American Ben Shelton 6-4 7-5 on a cold and blustery evening in Indian Wells to set up a tantalising semi-final against two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz.
Daniil Medvedev will face Holger Rune in Saturday’s other semi-final.
Russia’s Medvedev, runner-up here the past two years, beat France’s Arthur Fils 6-4 2-6 7-6 (9-7)
Medvedev is famous for not celebrating his victories but made an exception this time, leaping into the air four times with sheer delight after Fils missed a volley on match point.