Red-hot Sabalenka thumps Gauff to reach Indian Wells semi-finals

Second seed Aryna Sabalenka produced a performance full of power and confidence as she brushed aside Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-0 to move into the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Wednesday.

The Australian Open champion won a tight first set and then, as No 6 seed Gauff rushed at the start of the second, pulled away for an impressive victory, taking her record for the year to 16-1.

Sabalenka turns tide of head-to-head matchup

“I think I played great tennis and super happy with this win.” said Sabalenka, who had previously been 1-3 lifetime against Gauff. “It’s always tough matches against Coco, and I’m super happy that I was able to finish this one in two sets.

“I didn’t really think about our previous matches. I feel a little bit different on the court this year; I feel like I’m a little bit different player. Yeah, I wasn’t really focusing on the last matches against her. I was focused on myself. I knew if I [brought] my tennis on court today that I’ll have all of chances to win this match.”

“Overall it was a good tournament for me,” Gauff assessed. “I had some good wins. Obviously today didn’t go how I wanted to, but she played really great tennis and you can definitely see the improvement since the last time I played her. I think I just have to figure out a way how to combat that for the next time I play her.”

The Belarusian will face the winner of the match between Greek Maria Sakkari, the No 7 seed, and Czech Petra Kvitova, the No 15 seed, next.

Sabalenka has dropped just one set on the way to the last four, beating Russian Evgeniya Rodina (6-2, 6-0), Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko (W/O) and Czech Barbora Krejcikova, the No 16 seed (6-3, 2-6, 6-4).

Gauff beat Spanish qualifier Cristina Bucsa (6-2, 6-4), Czech Linda Noskova (6-4, 6-3) and Swede Rebecca Peterson (6-3, 1-6, 6-4) before finding Sabalenka too hot to handle.

Indian Wells WTA 1000, other quarter-final results (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 8.800.000, most recent results first):

• Iga Swiatek vs. Sorana Cirstea
• Karolina Muchova vs. Elena Rybakina
• Maria Sakkari vs. Petra Kvitova

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