Defending champion Iga Swiatek stormed into the Indian Wells last eight with a crushing 6-1,6-, 4 6-,1 defeat of Karolina Muchova. It took only 57 minutes for the Polish star, who is seeking to be the first woman to win the tournament three times, to dispatch her opponent, in a rain-delayed match.
The nearly hourlong delay did not seem to rust Swiatek, who set the tone from the outset and did not face a single break point in the entire match. The second seed has lost just six games onher way through to the last eight, proving her to be amongst the tournament favorites.
“I think sometimes the matches can be a bit weird,” Swiatek confessed. “It just takes one player not to feel right and the other one play great. And then it’s suddenly, the difference is way bigger than usual.”
The 23-year-old, who owns five Grand Slam crowns, has reached the Indian Wells quarter-finals for the fourth year in a row, a record run last matched by Karolina Pliskova from 2016-2019.
Swiatek next faces either China’s eighth seed Zheng Qinwen or Ukraine’s 18th seed Marta Kostyuk as she bids for a historic third Indian Wells title.
