Greece is the word: Sakkari survives Coco Gauff threat to set up title clash with Swiatek

Greece’s Maria Sakkari outlasted American Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2 after blowing three match points in the second set of their rain-delayed semifinal Friday night to reach the BNP Paribas Open final at Indian Wells.

Sakkari will play top-ranked Iga Swiatek from Poland in Sunday's final. Swiatek routed Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-1 to improve to 19-2 this year, with her match wins leading the WTA Tour.

Swiatek has beaten Sakkari in three of their five meetings.

“I want to improve. You know, I got to No. 3 and I just feel like I can get better,” Sakkari said earlier in the tournament. “There are things out there, I said that there are a couple of girls that have made an extra step in their careers, and I just want to try and, you know, catch them.

“But, you know, working with David (Witt), I feel like I can do that. I just feel like I have the athletic abilities. Mentally I can improve, of course, and tennis-wise, it’s not like I need to change my game. It’s just that I need to add a couple of things.”

There were delays of 20 minutes and two hours during the semifinal between third-seeded Gauff and ninth-seeded Sakkari.

Swiatek won the 2022 tournament as part of a 37-match winning streak. She had advanced to the semis when Caroline Wozniacki retired trailing 6-4, 1-0 in their quarterfinal. Swiatek has lost just 17 games through the semis.

Kostyuk hit 17 winners to 14 for Swiatek in the match. But Swiatek was better in nearly every other facet and didn't face a breakpoint. Swiatek connected on 74% of her first serves, won 83% of her first-serve points and 50% of her second-serve points on a cool and windy evening in the Southern California desert.

The men's semifinals us scheduled for later on Saturdya. Jannik Sinner faves Carlos Alcaraz while Tommy Paul plays Daniil Medvedev.