Iga Swiatek will be playing in the 2023 Indian Wells quarterfinals, and although it seemed that in-form Emma Raducanu could stop her, she couldn't.
The 2021 US Open champion was arriving to the clash with the world no. 1 after playing very good three matches in the Californian desert. In her last match, Raducanu defeated the 13th-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia and she wanted to take it another step further against the fellow US Open champion.
On the other hand, Swiatek was in superb form ahead of this match. In the second round, she thrashed Claire Liu, before defeating yet another fellow US Open champion, Bianca Andreescu in the third round.
Raducanu, who admitted after her latest win that she hasn't really practiced before the event, started the fourth-round match well. She could go ahead in the third game, but the world no. 1 doesn't give up points easily and the Brit felt that.
On the other hand, when Swiatek starts rolling, she's almost unstoppable, and that's exactly what happened in the first set. The defending champion at Indian Wells won 12 of 13 points played between the fifth and seventh game to snatch a 5-2 lead which she would never lose.
After just 46 minutes, Swiatek won the first set 6-3 and started rolling in the similar fashion also in the second. Once she got a grasp of the match, there was no stopping.
Raducanu was resilient at the start of the second set and except for a few moments, up to this point she played quite a good match, but she could just observe the greatness of Swiatek who started yet another point streak in the second set.
Since the scoreboard showed 1-1, 40-40, the world no. 1 won 18 of the following 20 points won and that was enough for her to win the match 6-3, 6-1 and set up a quarterfinal match with Sorana Cirstea, who stunned the fifth-seeded Caroline Garcia in the fourth round.
With her latest victory, she also joined an elite club of the likes of Serena and Venus Williams, Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis, Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka, and Arantxa Sachez Vicario as she won her last 15 matches played at the Sunshine Double and she can increase this streak even further.
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