Indian Wells WTA: Keys survives epic against Vekic

American Madison Keys, the No 5 seed, reached the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells WTA 1000 by winning against Croat Donna Vekic, the No 19 seed, 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-3 in California on Wednesday.

The victory extends Keys’ win-streak to 15 matches in a row, with the 30-year-old winning titles in Adelaide and Melbourne earlier in the year.

“Donna was playing so well,” Keys said after the match. “At some point I felt like it was do or die. Probably at 5-5 in the second set tiebreaker. I decided I was gonna go for a bit more. Really happy to get the win.”

Keys, ranked No 5, will play Swiss wildcard Belinda Bencic next.

The American defeated Russian Anastasia Potapova (6-3, 6-0) and edged out Belgian Elise Mertens, the No 28 seed (6-2, 6-7 (8), 6-4) ahead of her victory.

In the previous rounds of the Indian Wells tournament, Vekic, ranked No 22, beat Armenian Elina Avanesyan (6-3, 6-3) and American Emma Navarro, the No 10 seed (7-6 (5), 6-1).

Indian Wells WTA 1000, other last 16 results (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 8.963.700, most recent results first):

• Liudmila Samsonova vs. Jasmine Paolini
• Aryna Sabalenka vs. Sonay Kartal: wednesday
• Belinda Bencic beat Coco Gauff (3): 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Qinwen Zheng (8) beat Marta Kostyuk (18): 6-3, 6-2
• Mirra Andreeva (9) beat Elena Rybakina (7): 6-1, 6-2
• Elina Svitolina (23) beat Jessica Pegula (4): 5-7, 6-1, 6-2
• Iga Swiatek (2) beat Karolina Muchova (15): 6-1, 6-1