Keys keeps streak alive, Bencic stuns Gauff to reach Indian Wells quarter-finals

Madison Keys kept her winning streak alive against Donna Vekic 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-3 to reach the Indian Wells quarter-finals on Wednesday, as fellow American Coco Gauff fell to Swiss wildcard Belinda Bencic and top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka rolled through.

The Australian Open champion Keys notched her 15th straight victory with seven aces against the 19th seed, recovering from a slow start to set up a meeting with the Tokyo Olympic champion Bencic.

Vekic, the silver medallist in Paris, put up a terrific defence in the first set, fending off three break points in the second game and another in the fourth, and dropped only three of her first-serve points.

She had a 5-3 head start in the tiebreak but Keys dug in her heels, clinching it with an unreturnable serve as the Croatian thrust her racquet to the court in frustration.

Keys took the momentum from there and she closed out the comeback win with one of her lethal forehands to wild cheers from the home fans.

The American joy was tempered earlier in the day, as Bencic pulled off the upset against the third seed Gauff, 3-6 6-3 6-4, less than a year after giving birth.

In the tightly-contested third set, it was Bencic who struck first as she came back from 0-40 down to break Gauff for a 5-4 lead and closed out the victory on her first match point when the top-ranked American ripped a forward long.

"Obviously, this is why you are practicing and working hard all your life, so it's super nice to play in this kind of atmosphere," Bencic said in her on-court interview.

"The way you cheered before the match ... I had chills and goosebumps and I kind of just put the serve into the court because I was so nervous."

Gauff started aggressively and committed five double faults in the first set,