Keys expand their winning streak, playing semifinals against Sabalenka in India
Indies, California – Madison Keys expanded her winning streak to 16 games and beat Wild Card entry Belinda Bencic on Thursday with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1.
The Australian Open champion took only 65 minutes to finish with top seed Aryna Sabalenka, who beat Liudmila Samsonova 6-2 in 6-2. Keys denied Sabalenka’s third straight title after defeating Sabalenka in three sets in January at Melbourne Park.
Bencic met the frustration of the fourth seed Coco Goff in the fourth round, but the 28-year-old from Switzerland never had the chance to fight the key to the fifth seed.
Ben Shelton, 22, is the youngest American man to arrive in the quarterfinals of Indian Wells since 2004, but can’t go further. England’s Jack Draper reached the semifinals with a 6-4, 7-5 victory.
Draper, the 13th seed, will face two-time defending champion second-place seed Carlos Alcaraz, whose winning streak in Indian Wells stretches his winning streak to 16 games and beat Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Iga Swiatek made it to the BNP Paribas semi-final for the fourth time in a row, becoming the first woman to win three times. The No. 2 seed from Poland beat China’s eighth seed Qinwen Zheng 6-3, and defeated China’s 6-3 in a Paris Olympic semi-final last summer.
Defending champion Swiatek has won 10 straight wins in the California desert. The five-time Grand Slam champion also won the competition in 2022. Zheng ended Swiatek’s 25-game winning streak at the Olympics last year.
Swiatek converted all five of her breakout points, but Zheng broke in twice on the way to win six games, matching Swiatek’s total.
On the men’s side, Daniil Medvedev reached the Indian Wells semi-final for the third consecutive year, beating 20-year-old Arthur Fils 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7).
The 29-year-old Russian finished fifth and maintained his third bid to compete in the finals. This included a brief delay in the third set, when gusts of wind blew the entire stadium.
Mirra Andreeva entered the women’s semi-finals by defeating Elina Svitolina 7-5, 6-3. Holger Rune made his first Indian Wells semi-final by defeating Tallon Griekspoor 5-7, 6-0, 6-3.
