Aryna Sabalenka made light work of her quarter-final at Indian Wells, beating Liudmila Samsonova in straight sets to reach the last four. (More Tennis News)
Tಌhe Belarusian took just 84 minutes to seal her place in the next round, triumphing 6-2 6-3 on Thursday to set up a rematch of the Australian Open final against Madison Keys.
As she has before at this tournament, Sabalenka made a sluggish start, seeiꦚng her serve broken in the first gaꦐme.
However, she fought back after going 2-0 down and reeled off the next six games in a row to take the first set, taking the lead after converting on the second set-point atꦉtempt.
Sabalenka then raced into a 3-0 lead in t♐he🌞 second set, taking her winning run to nine games, but Samsonova dug deep to level the score, defending a break point on the way.
She coul𝓰d not hold onto her momentum t🉐hough, as Sabalenka then won the next three games to see out the match with little fuss.
The world number one has already faced Keys once this season, seeing ꦓher hopes of a three-peat at the Australian Open quashed by the American, and she is looking forward to facing off against her again.
"I'm excited♔. I'm really excited. I really hope I can do a little bit better than I did in Australia," she said.
"It's only coming to my minﷺd as motivation to get back that r✃evenge. It was a tough match. She played great there.
"I didn't play my 🎀best, and I'm really happy that [on Friday] I will have the opportunity ❀to get this revenge back."
Keys also emerged victorious in straight sets to reach the semi-finals, beating Belinda Bencic 6-1💮 6-1 to become the third-oldest player to secure 1𓂃6+ consecutive wins since 1990, younger only than Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams.
The other semi-final will see Iga Swiatek face off against Mirra Andreeva, who at 17 years and 318 days, is n𝓡ow the youngest player to reach🎉 multiple and consecutive WTA-1000 semi-finals, surpassing Victoria Azarenka (19y 280d) on the latter.
She beat Elina Svitolina 7-5 6-3 in her quarter-final match in 90♈ minutes.
Data Debrief: Sabalenka on top form
Each of the four semi-finalists in Indian Well♐s are now in the top four for WTA match wins in 2025 - Keys (18), Swiatek (18), Andreeva (17) and Sabalenkꦚa (16, now level with Clara Tauson).
Since 1989, Sabalenka and Swiateꦅk are only the second pair to reach multiple 💎women's singles semi-finals at Indian Wells as the WTA's top two players, after Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport (1998, 2000).
