PREVIEW Indian Wells 2026 Day Nine | Quarter-Final day in California including Alcaraz, Pegula-Rybakina, Draper, Sabalenka-Mboko

The Quarter-Finals are here at Indian Wells with a stacked Thursday in store after a late night finish that saw Novak Djokovic beaten by Jack Draper, Carlos Alcaraz's excellence and a bit of a non starter WTA wise.

Firstly to the WTA side with perhaps one of the games of the day in California at Indian Wells as Aryna Sabalenka faces off against Victoria Mboko.

A 6-1, 7-6 win is the only match they've ever played back at the Australian Open in favour of Sabalenka but Mboko keeps getting better and better and managed to hammer a player that is often the kryptonite of Sabalenka in Amanda Anisimova.

She thrashed Anisimova 6-4, 6-1 to reach the Quarter-Finals while for Sabalenka it was a 6-2, 6-4 win over Naomi Osaka in the Last 16. It was carbon copy results really as Mboko swept aside Anna Kalinskaya, while Sabalenka defeated Jaqueline Cristian.

Mboko though is a bit of an enigma and has the game to really bamboozle any player on the tour so a big step would be downing the current incumbent World Number One who perhaps is either going to use her engagement as happiness fuel or it might be a nightmare against the rising Canadian.

In the same section is the surprise package section as Linda Noskova, not that much of a surprise given she is 14th seed in the tournament and is one of a group of players who are on the cusp of the top 10 and can spoil the party at any point. She took advantage of sorts of Coco Gauff having to retire against perhaps the must see tennis star of the moment in Alexandra Eala. Eala then was soundly beaten 6-2, 6-0 by Noskova. While she now faces Talia Gibson, the Aussie ace who has been sublime.

Coming from qualifying she has taken down Clara Tauson and Jasmine Paolini back-to-back and now has a huge opportunity to reach the semi-finals albeit either will know that whoever they play it will be an uphill struggle as it will be Sabalenka or Mboko.

From a bit of a minefield when it comes to who comes through to the definition of consistency. Jessica Pegula faces off against Elena Rybakina in the first of two big Quarter-Final ties.

Rybakina won en route to winning the Australian Open in the semi-finals and also beat her in Saudi Arabia en route to the WTA Finals title so she is often a lucky omen. But Pegula took down an unlucky omen in Belinda Bencic last round so she will have the belief to combat this next step of the puzzle.

Both perhaps are must see this season out of anyone left as they are the two most in-form. They both have titles in abundance and are perhaps the top two outside of the top two right now. So it is a real top tie to watch.

Rybakina quelled Sonay Kartal last round who had a great week but was an unfortunate part of a leading amount of players who retired last night. Same went for Katerina Siniakova also against Elina Svitolina in another familiar sight as the Ukrainian faces Iga Swiatek.

Given how early it was done Swiatek was a bit of a footnote last night in that she smoked Karolina Muchova, one of the best players on tour this season without much resolve from the Czech ace and Svitolina also in addition won the first set 6-1 against Siniakova and at 1-1 in the second, the Czech quit. Call that Czechmate.

But their head-to-head sees Swiatek heavily favoured. She leads 4-1 but Svitolina is one to never count out. She continues to return to her best through injuries and mini slumps and certainly has the game if Swiatek is off but the potential is likely for Swiatek-Rybakina in the semi's on paper.

Onto the men's and it is most of the top names in the ATP Rankings in action. We start with a fun tie between Arthur Fils and Alexander Zverev. It is 4-2 in favour of Zverev against the resurgent Frenchman. Albeit Fils did win on a similar surface last year in Miami. Most of Zverev's wins are on clay or grass.

Fils took down Auger-Aliassime, Zverev saw off Frances Tiafoe. In their section is perhaps one of the most talked about American's right now who keeps improving. Learner Tien saw off Alejandro Davidovich Fokina after Ben Shelton and now faces Jannik Sinner who won in straights but not easily against Joao Fonseca in a meeting of the apparent future and present.

Then onto the other side and it'll be interesting to see how Jack Draper who has barely played in six months until these past weeks fares. He was in an absolute epic against Novak Djokovic and won through 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 and now faces Daniil Medvedev who smoked Alex Michelsen 6-2, 6-4 and has barely lost a game so far. He has only just come from the Dubai situation too in the great escape so he is even more impressive.

The winner of that faces either Carlos Alcaraz or Cameron Norrie. Alcaraz was epic against Casper Ruud albeit he only has a narrow 5-3 lead over Norrie who has won in Paris, Rio and Cincinnati and has been a bit of a constant since Alcaraz broke out. He saw off Rinky Hijikata and now has a big chance to topple the new king of tennis.