Swiatek to face 17-year-old Andreeva in Indian Wells semi-finals

INDIAN WELLS, California :Two-time Indian Wells champion Iga Swiatek avenged her shock Paris Olympics loss to Zheng Qinwen with a 6-3 6-3 win over the Chinese eighth seed on Thursday to reach the semi-finals in the California desert, where she will face teenager Mirra Andreeva.

Swiatek, one of the favourites when she lost to eventual champion Zheng in the Paris semi-finals last year, converted all five of her break-point chances during a 94-minute match that was interrupted multiple times to dry the court.

"At the end it got really windy which made it super tricky especially when the conditions change during the match you need to adjust quickly and it's not that easy," Swiatek said in her on-court interview.

"I am happy that I was pushing until the end. It was a weird match with all the breaks and everything but I wanted to be composed and really focused and I'm glad that I did that."

Up next for defending champion Swiatek, who has dropped 12 games across her four matches here, will be ninth seed Andreeva, who defeated Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 7-5 6-3.

The Russian won in Dubai last month for her first WTA 1000 crown and is the youngest woman to reach the semi-finals at the tournament since Maria Sharapova in 2005.

Andreeva continued to live up to the hype around her, playing a relentless brand of tennis to extend her win streak to 10 matches.

In the other women's quarter-finals later on Thursday, top seed Aryna Sabalenka will kick off the evening session against Liudmila Samsonova with the winner facing either Swiss wildcard Belinda Bencic or Australian Open champion Madison Keys.

MEDVEDEV BEATS FILS

Daniil Medvedev jumped for joy in an uncharacteristically emotional celebration after holding off young Frenchman Arthur Fils