Wild card Belinda Bencic came back from one set down to beat number 3 seed Coco Gauff in 2 hours and 20 minutes at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Bencic has reached her first WTA 1000 quarter final as a mother.
Bencic has levelled to 2-2 in her four head-to-head matches against Gauff. The Swiss player avenged her 5-7 6-2 6-1 defeat against her US rival in the fourth round of the Australian Open last January.
Bencic has become the sixth wild card to reach the quarter finals in Indian Wells since the tournament inception in 1999.
Bencic made her come-back on the WTA Tour last October after giving birth to her daughter Bella. She was unranked on returning to the professional circuit. She has risen to world number 58 this week after scoring a record of 16 wins to 4 defeats in 2025. The Swiss player won the ninth title of her career in Abu Dhabi last February.
Bencic won 66% of her first service points and made three double faults in the opening set.
Gauff broke in the second game to take a 2-0 lead in the first set. Bencic broke straight back in the third game and held serve at 30 to draw level to 2-2.
Gauff earned her decisive break in the sixth game to take a 4-2 lead and served out the first set with a hold at 15. Bencic received treatment on her left foot after the first set. Bencic won 70% of her first serve points in the second set and 83% in the third set. She did not face another break point after the opening set. Gauff went down 0-30 in her first service game of the second set. Bencic broke Gauff’s serve and never looked back.
Both players went on serve in the first eight games of the third set. Bencic rallied from 0-40 down to convert her second break point at 4-4, as Gauff hit a loose forehand return over the baseline.
Bencic won the eighth match of the 2024 season in which a player ranked outside the top 50 beat a top 10 player.
The Swiss player has scored her second top 5 win in 2025 after beating Elena Rybakina in the semifinals in Abu Dhabi.
Bencic set up a quarter final match against this year’s Australian Open champion Madison Keys, who beat Olympic silver medallist Donna Vekic 4-6 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 in 2 hours and 18 minutes.
Keys had lost against Iga Swiatek 6-1 6-0 in her only previous Indian Wells quarter final in 2022.
Keys has become the fifth player over 30 to win in the Open Era to win 15 consecutive WTA Tour matches joining Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams.
Keys is aiming to become the first US player to win a women’s singles title at Indian Wells since Serena Williams in 2001.
Vekic saved four break points on her first two service games. The Croatian player earned the first break point with a drop shot winner to take a 3-2 lead. Keys broke back in the eighth game to draw level to 4-4. Vekic broke for the second time in the ninth game and served out at 15.
Vekic saved a set point at 5-4 in the second set with an ace sending the second set to the tie-break. Vekic saved two more set points at 5-6 and 6-7 in the tie-break, but she was never able to earn a match point. Keys earned the fourth set point with a forehand return winner and converted it to level the match at one set apiece.
Keys broke serve in the first and seventh games to race out to a 5-2 lead in the third set. She was not able to serve out the match, as Vekic broke one break back in the eighth game. Keys broke serve with a forehand in the 10th game to seal the win.
Keys ended the match with 46 winners to 28 unforced errors.
Keys leads 3-1 in her head-to-head matches against Vekic. “I think Donna played really well at the beginning. I felt like I wasn’t executing quite how I wanted to. Was really happy that I was able to kind of flip the script a little bit in the second set and kind of play a pretty solid third set”, said Keys said in her post-match press conference.
