Aryna Sabalenka won in straight sets to
Maria Sakkari and reached her third final of
the season at the BNP Paribas
Indian Wells Open.
Sakkari
reached the final of Indian Wells in 2022 and this year was just one victory
away from being a finalist for the second consecutive year. On her way, she
defeated Shelby Rogers, Anhelina Kalinina, former world No. 1 Karolina
Pliskova, and 2-time Grand Slam champion Petra Kvitova. But in the semifinals,
she faced the best tennis player of 2023 so far and the champion of the
Australian Open this year.
The
Belarusian has had two brilliant weeks in California. She won her first match
against Yevguenia Rodina, only conceding two games. Then she had a walkover
against Tsurenko, a hard-fought match against Barbora Krejcikova in the
quarterfinals, and an impressive victory over Coco Gauff, where she even achieved
a bagel.
Sabalenka
lost her serve twice during the match with Sakkari but also broke her
opponent's serve five times and was practically ahead on the scoreboard for the
entire match. The first set had several unforced errors from the Greek player,
especially on her serve. Additionally, Sabalenka responded well to Sakkari's
first serve, preventing her from dominating the points.
In the
second set, Sakkari showed a renewed attitude, playing more aggressive shots to
try to change the match and take it to a third set. She lost her first service
game but managed to break back in the next game. After that, the dominance was
absolute for the world No. 2, who ended the match 6-2, 6-3 and became the first
finalist of the tournament.
Sabalenka
has already won four Masters 1000 titles, twice in Wuhan, one in Doha, and the
most recent one in Madrid 2021. The Belarusian has never lost a final of a
tournament in this category and will seek to maintain that statistic when she
plays the final against the winner of the match between Iga Swiatek and Elena
Rybakina.