(Indian Wells) World number one Iga Swiatek defeated Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-1 to reach the final of the Indian Wells tennis tournament on Friday.
Swiatek improved to 19-2 this year, leading the WTA Tour in wins. In the final, the Pole will face ninth seed Maria Sakkari.
Sakkari defeated the American Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-7 (5) and 6-2 after a match interrupted twice by rain.
Swiatek has won nine of his 10 career duels against Gauff and three of his five matches against Sakkari.
Swiatek won the Indian Wells tournament in 2022, after having a 37-game winning streak.
Kostyuk hit 17 winners and Swiatek had 14. However, the Pole dominated almost every other aspect of the game.
Swiatek, who did not face any break points, finished the match with a 74% success rate in first serves. She won 83% of the rallies contested on her first serve, as well as half of those on her second ball.
“It was the cleanest game I’ve played here,” Swiatek said in the on-court interview after the game. I didn’t really have a moment in the match today where I didn’t feel confident. »
In the men’s doubles final, Nikola Mektic and Wesley Koolhof defeated fifth seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4).