CNN
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Burgeoning tennis superstar Mirra Andreeva recorded her 10th straight tour victory to reach the semifinals of Indian Wells, defeating Elina Svitolina 7-5, 6-3 on Thursday.
The 17-year-old made history last month as the youngest ever player to win a WTA 1000 title when she lifted the trophy at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
She is now also the youngest player to reach multiple WTA 1000 semifinals since the format was introduced in 2009, the youngest to do it at consecutive tournaments, and the youngest to win at least 10 straight matches at WTA 1000 events, per Opta.
Andreeva will face world No. 2 Iga Świątek, who she defeated in straight sets en route to winning the title in Dubai, in Friday’s semifinal in California, but she says that the previous victory will have no bearing on this match.
“It doesn’t give me any benefit to our match tomorrow, because what happened happened, and the past is in the past,” No. 9 seed Andreeva said, per the WTA. “Tomorrow is going to be a new day, new match, new conditions, new country. Everything is different.
“I’m going to try my best to prepare in the best way for our match tomorrow, and I’m sure that the match is going to be great, because our head-to-head is one-all. I think it’s going to be an entertaining match, and we’re just going to see who is going to be better tomorrow.”
Świątek, the defending champion at Indian Wells, cruised past Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 6-3 in a rain-delayed match to reach the semifinals.
The five-time grand slam champion, who lost to Zheng in the semifinals at Paris 2024, is looking to win her third Indian Wells crown and become the first woman to win back-to-back titles since Martina Navratilova in 1990 and 1991.
“At the end it got pretty windy, which made it super tricky,” Świątek said, per the Tennis Channel. “You need to adjust quickly and it’s not that easy, but I’m happy that I was pushing until the end.
“I wanted to be composed and really focused, and I’m glad that I did that.”
In the other semifinal, world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka will take on Madison Keys in a rematch of January’s Australian Open final.
It is a welcome return to form for Sabalenka, who was knocked out in the first and second rounds of two tournaments since that defeat to Keys Down Under.
Keys, playing in her first tournament since the Australian Open, has now won 16 straight matches after beating Belinda Bencic 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals at Indian Wells.