Tag: Indian Wells Masters

World number one Iga Swiatek overpowered Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-1 on Friday to reach the final at the ATP-WTA Indian Wells Masters.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek, who won the 2022 Indian Wells title, needed just 69 minutes to get past 32nd-ranked Ukrainian Kostyuk and will face either US Open champion Coco Gauff or Maria Sakkari of Greece in Sunday’s final.

Ninth-ranked Sakkari, who fell to Swiatek in the 2022 Indian Wells final, had taken the first set 6-4 from third-ranked Gauff when rain temporarily put their match on hold.

Swiatek and Kostyuk avoided the desert showers, but played in overcast, chilly conditions that did nothing to slow the red-hot Swiatek.

“I think it was the cleanest match I played here,” said Swiatek, who hit 14 winners with just six unforced errors and didn’t face a break point. “I didn’t really have any moment today in the match where I didn’t feel confident.

“I have all the positive vibes.”

Although she has reached the final without dropping a set, Iga Swiatek had insisted after prior victories that she had a few things in her game to sort out.

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It looked as if she had done just that as she put Kostyuk on the run early, piling on the pressure with her precision and power.

The Ukrainian, playing in her first 1000 level semi-final, held serve to open the match, but Swiatek won the next five games and pocketed the opening set in half an hour.

Kostyuk, who finished with 17 winners and 23 unforced errors, could find no way to right the ship.

She fell behind 3-0 in the second set and required treatment on her left foot apparently after jamming it during a point.

Swiatek was unfazed by the medical timeout, holding for a 4-0 lead and polishing off the victory with a service return winner for her fifth break of Kostyuk’s serve.

Iga Swiatek, 22, has come back strong from her disappointing third-round exit at the Australian Open.

She won the title in Doha and reached the semi-finals in Dubai, and her 19 match wins are the most of any WTA player this year.

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LOS ANGELES: World number one Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from next week’s ATP/WTA Indian Wells Masters event, organisers confirmed on Sunday with the Serb barred from entering the country.

Djokovic is unable to enter the United States because he is unvaccinated against Covid-19, but he had petitioned US authorities for special permission to enter.

The Indian Wells ATP 1000 event begins next week in the California desert and is followed by the prestigious tournament in Miami which Djokovic is now expected to miss unless US authorities have a change of heart.

The United States still doesn’t allow unvaccinated international travellers to enter the country, with the Transportation Security Administration recently indicating the policy would not change until at least mid-April.

Djokovic’s vaccination status saw him deported from Australia shortly before the 2022 Australian Open.

After winning Wimbledon he also missed the US Open last year because of the travel restriction.

He returned to Australia in January, winning the 2023 Australian Open for a record-equalling 22nd Grand Slam singles title.

He took his match win streak to 20 in Dubai last week before falling on Friday to Daniil Medvedev in the semi-finals.

Djokovic will be replaced in the field by Nikoloz Basilashvili, a brief statement said.

On Friday, both the US Tennis Association and US Open organisers voiced support for Djokovic’s request to be allowed to enter the United States.

“Novak Djokovic is one the greatest champions our sport has ever seen,” the US Open wrote on its official Twitter feed.

“The USTA and US Open are hopeful that Novak is successful in his petition to enter the country, and that the fans will be able to see him back in action at Indian Wells and Miami.”

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INDIAN WELLS: Taylor Fritz’s stubborn streak stood him in good stead on Sunday as the American worked through a painful ankle injury in time to see off Spanish great Rafael Nadal in the ATP Indian Wells Masters final.

Hours earlier it looked like the 24-year-old American ranked 20th in the world wouldn’t be able to take the court for what would turn out to be the greatest win of his career.

But after treatment to numb the pain and against the advice of several in his camp, Fritz found himself celebrating a 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) triumph over the 21-time Grand Slam champion.

“In the end, I am glad I made this decision,” Fritz said. “We’ll see how it is tomorrow. I have an MRI tomorrow.”

He acknowledged that his participation in next week’s Miami Masters is now “questionable.”

But he’s not sorry he’s so “incredibly stubborn.”

The 24-year-old Californian said that’s part of what helped him recover in time for Wimbledon last year after he departed Roland Garros in a wheelchair then underwent surgery to repair damage in his right knee.

“I think I’m an extremely stubborn person,” he said of his ability to shake off the injury. “I also think I have a very high pain tolerance and not a lot of regard for potentially damaging myself worse if I think there’s a chance I can get on the court and play.

“It’s probably a lot of not-so-good things that get me on the court,” added Fritz, who also kept playing in Toronto last year when he was “seeing fuzzy and almost blacking out.”

He had plenty of incentive to tough it out on Sunday, with a chance to play one of the game’s greats at a tournament he attended with his father as a child growing up in Southern California.

The reward was a first Masters 1000 title that made him the first American to win at the elite level since John Isner won in Miami in 2018.

“My dad brought me here as a kid,” Fritz said. “He told me that I was going to win this tournament one day when I was a little kid.

“He was just really, really proud of me,” Fritz said of his emotional post-match talk with his parents. “And it’s tough to get a compliment out of him.”

While Fritz’s ankle injury may keep him out of Miami, he believes his Indian Wells win is a step toward his current goal of reaching the top 10.

“This helps a lot,” he said. “I’d love to go way higher than that and achieve way more than that.”

READ: Iga Swiatek beats Maria Sakkari to win Indian Wells WTA title 

LONDON: Former French Open champion Iga Swiatek beat Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-1 on Sunday to win the WTA Indian Wells title and move to a career-high ranking of number two in the world.

Swiatek’s fifth career title was her second in as many tournaments after her triumph in Doha last month and pushed her WTA match win-streak to 11.

It also ensured the 20-year-old from Poland, who shot to prominence with her victory at Roland Garros in 2020, will climb two spots to supplant Barbora Krejcikova at number two in the rankings behind Australian Ashleigh Barty on Monday.

“I’m really overwhelmed and honestly my mind is blown,” Swiatek said, explaining that coming into the tournament she didn’t think it was “realistic” to think she could maintain the level that saw her win Doha for a second straight tournament.

“I wouldn’t think of myself as someone who’s ready to play two tournaments in a row and win it,” she said.

However, now that she’s followed Agnieszka Radwanska as the only Polish player to reach number two in the world, she’s aiming even higher.

“I feel like getting the number one is closer and closer,” she said.

Greece’s  Sakkari, who came into the tournament ranked sixth in the world and also had a chance to get to number two with a victory, will rise to a career-high third.

Both players struggled to find a rhythm on another breezy day in the California desert, where their first set featured six breaks of serve in what Swiatek called “crazy” conditions.

“For sure you could see that we are, in the beginning, a little bit stressed, and the wind is also not helping,” Swiatek said.

“But I’m pretty glad that I played better and better every game, and I managed to somehow find a little bit of balance even in these conditions.

“It was pretty hard to actually play the tactics that I wanted because of the conditions. But I wanted just to stay consistent and really solid because that’s the most important thing when the ball is going, you know, in weird directions.”

Trailing 5-4 in the first, Sakkari led 40-30 but sent two backhands into the net to give Swiatek a set point, which the Greek saved with a forehand winner.

Sakkari came up with a service winner to save another set point, then double-faulted to give Swiatek a third chance, the Pole taking the set when Sakkari stroked a backhand into the net.

With a set in hand, Swiatek dominated in the second. Although she couldn’t convert two break points in the second game as Sakkari made it 1-1, Swiatek roared through the next six games to close it out in 80 minutes and remain unbeaten in five career WTA finals.

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INDIAN WELLS: Former world number one Andy Murray rallied after a dismal first set to beat Japanese qualifier, Taro Daniel, in the first round at Indian Wells on Friday and claim a 700th ATP Tour match victory.

Murray, a three-time Grand Slam champion now ranked 88th in the world and playing on a wildcard invitation, was broken at love four times but held on for a gritty 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory in the first round of the prestigious ATP Masters tournament.

It was his second win in three matches this year against Daniel, who stunned Murray in the second round of the Australian Open before the Briton turned the tables in the first round at Doha.

Murray, who is reuniting with coach Ivan Lendl in a bid to regain championship form after years marked by injury and indifferent results, is now one of just four active players to have won 700 tour matches, along with Roger Federer (1,215), Rafael Nadal (1,043) and Novak Djokovic (991).

“Reaching that number is a really, really good achievement,” said Murray.

“It’s not been easy getting there,” he added, noting that he had reached 600 match wins in 2016 before his victory rate was slowed in large part by injury.

“Five and a half years to get the last hundred, so it’s taken a while,” he said.

Murray said it’s the kind of stat he wouldn’t have paid too much attention to early in his career.

“I do look at that stuff now,” he said. “Like I do look at the other players that are around me, around those numbers. (It) gives me some motivation and encouragement to try to get higher and win more matches.

“When you look at the players that have done it, most of the players that are up there and have won that many matches are certainly the best players of the last sort of 30, 40 years.

“To be in amongst that is nice.”

The signs weren’t auspicious that he would reach the milestone when Daniel raced through the opening set in 28 minutes, Murray claiming just four points on his serve.

But Murray responded in the second, powering to a 5-0 lead himself before Daniel managed to hold serve.

Daniel then broke him to love again before Murray broke back to force a deciding set.

Daniel gained a quick upper hand with another break to love in the opening game of the third, but Murray levelled the set with a break for 3-3 and after a tense hold for 5-4 broke Daniel again for the win on his third match point.

The victory is a morale booster for Murray, who said his ability to maintain a positive attitude was a key takeaway from the match.

“To be honest, I’ve not been playing well,” he said. “There’s obviously been the physical battle, but also mental battle as well, of trying to find my game, trying to be patient and not get too frustrated and too down on myself, which has been tough these last four or five months.

“It’s going to take some time on the practice court to work on. I’m looking forward to working on that with Ivan after the Miami tournament, I’ll train in Orlando there with him.”

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