The women’s semifinals take place on Friday, featuring the three current reigning WTA Major singles champions.
Roland Garros and US Open champion Iga Swiatek, Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, and Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka are also the top three players in the year-to-date rankings. They are joined in Friday’s semifinals by Maria Sakkari, who like Swiatek is looking to reach the final of this tournament for the second consecutive year.
Friday’s play gets underway at 11:00am local time with the women’s doubles semifinals, featuring top seeds Barbora Krejcikova and Katerinia Siniakova, who have claimed 23 of their last 25 matches. The men’s doubles semifinals will also be decided on Friday, which include top seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski, as well as defending champions John Isner and Jack Sock.
Maria Sakkari (7) vs. Aryna Sabalenka (2) – Not Before 3:00pm on Stadium 1
Sabalenka is currently playing the best tennis of her career. It’s a remarkable turnaround from a year ago, when she was striking double-digit double faults in nearly all her matches, and even resorting to an underhand serve at times. Aryna is 16-1 on the year, and took our Barbora Krekcikova and Coco Gauff to advance to this semifinal.
Sakkari is now 15-5 in 2023, but unlike Sabalenka, who recently broke through in a Major semifinal after three heartbreaking losses, semifinals remain a significant hurdle for Maria. She has lost all three semifinals she has contested this year in three sets. She also lost in the semifinals of the WTA Finals the last two years. And Sakkari has lost both of her Major semifinals, even after holding a match point in the first. But she did prevail in the semifinals here a year ago, as well as in another WTA 1000 semifinal this past fall in Guadalajara.
Sabalenka is 4-3 against Sakkari, though Maria has taken their two most recent encounters, both of which occurred during round robin play the past two years at the WTA Finals. However, based on Aryna’s current form and level of confidence, her big serve and ball-striking should propel her to her first championship match at Indian Wells.
Iga Swiatek (1) vs. Elena Rybakina (10) – Not Before 6:00pm on Stadium 1
This is a rematch from the round of 16 at January’s Australian Open, when Rybakina upset the World No.1 in straight sets. Swiatek claimed their only other previous meeting, two years ago on an indoor hard court in Ostrava.
Iga is now 16-3 this season, and looking to reach her third consecutive final, after doing so in both Doha and Dubai. She is still yet to play a three-set match in 2023, which of course means she hasn’t dropped a set this fortnight, though she’s also yet to face a player ranked inside the top 30. Rybakina is 14-4, and survived a stern test from Karolina Muchova in Thursday’s quarterfinals, prevailing 6-4 in the third after nearly three hours.
On the slow-playing hard courts of Indian Wells, I like Swiatek’s chances of avenging her Australian Open loss to Rybakina. As formidable as Elena has become, Iga has truly separated herself from the WTA pack for the past year, and the court speed will allow her more time to defend against Rybakina’s power. Swiatek will also be the fresher player on Friday.
Friday’s full Order of Play is here.
