World primary Iga Swiatek continued her pursuit of back-to-back Indian Wells titles as she cruised previous Romania’s Sorana Cirstea in straight units to achieve the semi-finals.
The 21-year-old beat Cirstea, ranked 83 on this planet, 6-2 6-3.
The defending champion received eight consecutive video games en path to a complete victory in California.
Winner of the French and US Opens final yr, Swiatek will face Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina on Friday.
Kazakhstan’s Rybakina, who beat the Czech Republic’s Karlina Muchova 7-6 (7-4) 2-6 6-4 in her quarter-final, knocked Swiatek out of the Australian Open in January.
Swiatek, who beat Briton Emma Raducanu in the fourth round, is seeking to change into simply the second lady, after Martina Navratilova in 1990 and 1991, to win back-to-back titles at this event.
Cirstea recovered an early break and batted off a break level to stage the opening set at 2-2 earlier than Swiatek steamed by way of the subsequent eight video games.
Swiatek powered to 2 breaks of serve early within the second set earlier than Cirstea clawed one again then held for 4-2, however the prime seed is but to lose a set on the event and sailed to a snug victory in a single hour 22 minutes.
Earlier on Thursday, Rybakina began slowly in opposition to Muchova, failing to transform 5 break factors within the first set however finally forcing a tie-brea, which she received after the 26-year-old’s double fault.
World quantity 76 Muchova deservedly took the second set earlier than Rybakina produced some highly effective serves to safe the victory and progress to her first ever Indian Wells semi-final.
In the meantime, Greece’s Maria Sakkari rallied from a set and a break right down to beat Petra Kvitova 4-6 7-5 6-1 to safe a second consecutive Indian Wells semi-final spot.
Kvitova began nicely – having secured a dramatic match-point saving win over Jessica Pegula a day earlier – to take the primary set and instantly break Sakkari within the second.
However Sakkari got here from 40-0 down within the ultimate sport to drive a deciding set, which she received in dominant vogue.
The 27-year-old will now face world quantity two Aryna Sabalenka, who moved into the semi-finals with a 6-4 6-0 victory over American Coco Gauff on Wednesday.
