Madison Keys Wins Again, Reaches BNP Paribas Semifinals

Madison Keys extended her winning streak to 16 matches, reaching the BNP Paribas Open semifinals with an easy 6-1, 6-1 victory over wild-card entry Belinda Bencic on Thursday.

The Australian Open champion took just 65 minutes to set up a rematch with top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated Liudmila Samsonova 6-2, 6-3 later in the day. Keys had beaten Sabalenka in three sets in January at Melbourne Park, denying Sabalenka her third consecutive title.

Bencic, who had upset No. 4 seed Coco Gauff in the fourth round, stood no chance against Keys, the fifth seed, who dominated the match from start to finish.

In the men’s draw, 22-year-old Ben Shelton, the youngest American man to reach the quarterfinals at Indian Wells since 2004, couldn’t progress further. Jack Draper of England moved into the semifinals with a 6-4, 7-5 win.

The 13th-seeded Draper will now face No. 2 seed Carlos Alcaraz, the two-time defending champion, who kept his winning streak at Indian Wells going with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over Francisco Cerundolo.

Iga Swiatek also reached the BNP Paribas semifinals for the fourth consecutive time, as she aims to become the first woman to win the tournament three times. The No. 2 seed from Poland beat eighth-seeded Qinwen Zheng of China 6-3, 6-3, avenging her loss to Zheng in last year’s Paris Olympics semifinal.

Swiatek, the defending champion, has now won 10 matches in a row at Indian Wells, having also won the event in 2022. Zheng had ended Swiatek’s 25-match winning streak at the Olympics last year.

Swiatek was perfect on her break points, converting all five, but Zheng still managed to break twice, winning six games in total, the most Swiatek had dropped in the tournament so far.

In the men’s event, Daniil Medvedev reached the Indian Wells semifinals for the third consecutive year, defeating 20-year-old Frenchman Arthur Fils 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7). The fifth-seeded Russian stayed on track for his third final appearance at the event, despite a brief delay in the third set due to strong winds blowing debris onto the court.

Mirra Andreeva advanced to the women’s semifinals with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Elina Svitolina, while Holger Rune made his first Indian Wells semifinal with a comeback 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 victory over Tallon Griekspoor.