Swiatek, who dominates women's tennis head and shoulders, dispatched the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk (32nd), who reached the last four to everyone's surprise, 6-2, 6-1 in 69 minutes.
“I am satisfied with my performance
,” said Swiatek, who did not have to defend a single break point.
“I think it’s the cleanest match I’ve played here.”
Although she reached the final without losing a single set, Swiatek, already crowned with four Grand Slam titles, had insisted after her previous victories that she still had to resolve some problems in her game. which she seemed to have done by putting Kostyuk in difficulty from the start of the game thanks to precise and powerful strikes.
The Ukrainian, who was playing in her first WTA 1000 semi-final, was trailing 3-0 in the second set when she received treatment on her left foot.
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On the restart, Swiatek did not take long to secure the victory by achieving a winning return of service for his fifth break.
The semi-final of the Greek Maria Sakkari against the American Coco Gauff took much longer to resolve.
Sakkari keeps a cool head
Not only was the score close with reversals, Sakkari winning in three sets 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, but the rain got involved, interrupting the match for two hours while the Greek had just won the first set and the American was serving in the first game of the second.
The players had already had to wait around twenty minutes in the eighth game of the first set, because a first downpour had made the court too slippery.
After the second stoppage, Sakkari scored his first break of the match to lead 5-4 and secure three match points.
But Gauff, who was playing his first semi-final in Indian Wells, saved them, and equalized at one set everywhere by dominating the decisive game.
Sakkari made the difference in the final round, finally winning after 2 hours 41 minutes of play.
“It’s an incredible victory, I’m so happy to be in the final here again
,” declared, relieved, Sakkari.
“Coco is such a tough opponent, she fights on every point
. ”
After the loss of the second set where she was unable to exploit three match points, Sakkari was not discouraged.
“After losing this set, I could have lost my mind, but I didn’t give up
,” she added.
In the final, Swiatek and Sakkari will face each other for the sixth time.
The balance is currently tipping in favor of the Greek, who leads three victories to two.
But Swiatek is getting closer: after losing her first three matches against Sakkari, she won the last two, in 2022 in Doha and in... Indian Wells, in the final, already.