Mirra Andreeva celebrates. PIC: WTA
Indian Wells: Mirra Andreeva turned a 4-1 first-set deficit into a dominant 6-4, 6-0 win over Aryna Sabalenka in 62 minutes at Indian Wells, winning the final 11 games and 45 of the last 55 points to reach her first FAGE WTA Finals semi-final.
As a result, Andreeva, with two straight-set wins, topped Group 2 to become the youngest player to advance to the WTA Finals semifinals since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009. She is the fifth teenager to reach the semifinals since the current round-robin format was introduced in 2003, joining Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Wozniacki and Coco Gauff.
The victory also produced another milestone. After beating Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-0 in her opening round-robin match, Andreeva became the first player in tournament history to win a 6-0 set in each of her first two WTA Finals matches.
“I would give myself a good eight,” Andreeva told reporters. “To earn a 10, you have to play the best match of your life. I feel like it was good, solid, but not great enough for a 10.”
The first meeting between Andreeva and Sabalenka in 605 days carried plenty of intrigue. Their most recent encounter had come in the 2025 Indian Wells final, when the teenager came from a set down to stun the then-World No. 1 Sabalenka and lift the trophy.
Sabalenka, meanwhile, won Indian Wells this year as part of her completion of the Sunshine Double and got off to a strong start on Wednesday, breaking Andreeva’s serve for 3-1 and racing to a 4-1 lead.
“I was angry,” Andreeva told reporters. “I was not very happy with how things went. Obviously she played well, I mean she hit a lot of winners. I was not happy with how I lost my serve with the double fault on break point. I was just feeling that anger building up inside of me.
“But it was a good thing that I was serving, because I kind of was able to turn that anger into trying to serve faster. To let it out with serving. And then after, I felt better and I was able to play better on the return and, just like that, things went my way.”
What followed was a stunning reversal as Andreeva won the next 12 points to level the set at 4-all, then claimed 20 of the next 23 points and closed the opener with three consecutive aces.
She carried that momentum through the second set. She won all of her first-serve points and lost just two points on serve in the set, never giving Sabalenka a chance to slow her surge.
Despite the defeat, Sabalenka remains alive in the semifinal race. She and Svitolina will play for the second semifinal spot today after Svitolina rallied from a set down to defeat Muchova earlier Wednesday. (WTA)
