Defending champ Paula Badosa, Maria Sakkari reach Indian Wells semis

[March 18, 2022] Spain's Paula Badosa and Greece's Maria Sakkari won their quarterfinal matches Thursday to advance to the last four at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.

Badosa, the defending champion and No. 5 seed, took down No. 21 seed Veronika Kudermetova of Russia 6-3, 6-2. The sixth-seeded Sakkari got by Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina, the No. 17 seed, 7-5, 6-4.

Badosa and Sakkari will battle in one semifinal match at Indian Wells, while No. 3 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland will play No. 24 seed Simona Halep of Romania in the other.

Badosa served five aces and never had her serve broken en route to a one-hour, 23-minute victory.
 

Sakkari had six aces to Rybakina's four, but she won it with her defense. She saved four of five break points while also converting three of six opportunities to break Rybakina.

Rybakina went ahead 4-1 in the first set as Sakkari lost her first serve. She hung in and never allowed her opponent to break her the rest of the way.

"I think I had a rough start," Sakkari said. "I was a little bit nervous. But then I just had faith in my game. I knew that if I could break her back, I would get back into the match. Making a lot of balls after being 4-1 down gave me a good chance to come back into the match. I see that I'm actually very calm and very confident that it's only a break."

--Field Level Media

[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]  This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.