Iga Swiatek, who was the title favourite at Indian Wells, crashed to a semi-final defeat against 17-year-old Mira Andreeva, on Saturday. The Russian teenager reigned supreme, and began on a strong note, winning the first set via the tie-breaker (7-1), 7-6. Then the World No. 2 staged a comeback and won the second set 6-1, and it looked like Swiatek was back in the game. But in the deciding set, Andreeva sealed a resounding 6-3 win, to complete a three-setter victory (7-6, 1-6, 6-3).
The match had its fair share of drama as Swiatek fell victim to controversy. The Polish ace was visibly frustrated as she failed to gain any control in most stages of the match, and showed her anger on herself and her team. She also had a meltdown with a ball kid, who gave her the ball, but she smashed it to the ground in anger. The ball kid appeared shellshocked as the ball bounced straight to Swiatek’s team.
In the third set, she also ran to the chair umpire and began to argue that she was being distracted by ball kids, who were moving during her opponent’s serve.
Video – Iga Swiatek scares ball kid and smashes ball at team members:
Andreeva’s tour winning streak now extends to 11 matches, and she ended Swiatek’s 10-match run.
Andreeva will now face Aryna Sabalenka, who is the current World No. 1, in the finals. Both players have faced each other six times, with the teenager winning only once (2024 French Open semi-finals). This year, Sabalenka beat her 6-3, 6-2 in Brisbane and 6-1, 6-2 in Melbourne.
Speaking after her semi-final win, Andreeva said, “The matches that we played this year didn’t really go my way. Yeah, I can say she almost killed me — especially in Melbourne. I’m gonna try to take a revenge, because I still have nothing to lose, and I feel like the match is going to be probably entertaining. There is going to be a lot of…I think…a lot of winners — a lot of great points.”
“Now it’s going to be Conchita’s job to prepare me well for this match, so I hope she is gonna do it. But, yeah, I will just go out there as for every other match and try to play my best and to fight for every point. And then we’re gonna see who’s gonna win,” she added.
