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Sabalenka out-guns Mboko to reach Indian Wells semi-finals / Photo: Harry How - GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Sabalenka out-guns Mboko to reach Indian Wells semi-finals
World number one Aryna Sabalenka kept her bid for a first Indian Wells title on track, holding off Canadian teen Victoria Mboko 7-6 (7/0), 6-4 to reach the semi-finals on Thursday.
Sabalenka had beaten Mboko in the fourth round of the Australian Open in January in a match the 19-year-old called "an eye-opener."
This time around, Mboko, ranked 10th in the world, went toe-to-toe with the big-hitting Belarusian in the opening set before Sabalenka ran away with it in the tiebreaker.
Mboko regrouped admirably to open the second set with a confident service hold.
But Sabalenka finally cracked Mboko's serve on her seventh opportunity, conjuring the first break of the match for a 3-2 lead and fighting off a pair of break points in the eighth game to bring it home.
Sabalenka, who came up empty in trips to the final of the ATP and WTA Masters 1000 in California in 2023 and 2025, next faces either 14th-ranked Czech Linda Noskova or Australian qualifier Talia Gibson for a place in the final.
Gibson, 21, nabbed her first victory over a top-10 player with a fourth-round win over seventh-ranked Italian Jasmine Paolini.
Gibson, ranked 112th and into the last eight in her first WTA 1000 main draw appearance, is the first qualifier to reach the Indian Wells women's quarter-finals since Lesia Tsurenko in 2015.
World number two Iga Swiatek, a two-time Indian Wells champion, will take on ninth-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, with the winner of that match facing either reigning Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina or fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula in the semi-finals.
C.Weber--BlnAP
