Caroline Wozniacki retires with a right toe problem after losing six straight games to Iga Swiatek from 4-1 up; you can watch Indian Wells live on Sky Sports plus over 80 tournaments a year, including the US Open, exclusively live on Sky Sports Tennis
Friday 15 March 2024 07:06, UK
World No 1 Iga Swiatek made it through to the semi-finals at Indian Wells for the third consecutive year after Caroline Wozniacki was forced to retire injured.
Wozniacki, the 2011 champion here, retired with a right toe problem after losing six straight games to Swiatek.
The 33-year-old mother-of-two proved she is still competitive following a three-and-a-half-year hiatus from professional tennis and started well in their highly anticipated clash by taking a 4-1 lead.
That was before Swiatek won what turned out to be the last six games of the match.
"I have a huge respect for her and I'm sad she has to go that way I'm sure she will recover and I hope she will be ready for Miami," Swiatek said.
"I just wanted to hit the ball clean. I had many chances but with her defence she puts pressure on her opponents. Sometimes I made mistakes but I had to remain patient and calm."
Swiatek will take on Marta Kostyuk for a place in the final after the Ukrainian won 18 of the last 21 points to claim a 6-0 7-5 win over Anastasia Potapova.
It was Kostyuk's first win in three career meetings with Potapova.
"I practiced with [Swiatek] in Doha, I was really looking forward to actually playing her in the match," Kostyuk said, looking ahead to the semis. "I think it will be a great match.
"I don't know what else to say, because I'm excited, and I played her in Paris three years ago, and it was a bit different match. We were both in different positions. Even more exciting now."
"I feel like she's had a tricky 2024 and when she came back she thought it would be a bit easier and had that run at the US Open and then took a few months off and didn't play anything post September until the start of this year," the former British No 1 told Sky Sports Tennis.
"I think that gap has kind of showed over the first few months of the season."
"It's been a bit of a struggle for Caroline coming back from maternity leave. She thought she would get back to this level a little bit quicker."
"The way Wozniacki has been playing has been absolutely fantastic," he said. "She played so well at the US Open and there was an air of confidence that she would march back up the rankings but it was a bit hard for her at the start of this year and she's now strung together some wins.
"She's only 33 years old and I'm fascinating to see how much further she can go."
Coco Gauff made it through to the semi-finals for the first time in her career after defeating China's Yuan Yue 6-4 6-3.
"I'm really happy to be through today's match," said the 20-year-old. "It wasn't the best style of the serving, but overall I think when it comes to the groundstroke game and returns, everything else, honestly, I played well. I'll just try and take the positives into the next match."
Gauff, who said she celebrated her birthday with steak tacos, added: "I pretty much just relied on me just out-rallying her and being aggressive.
"I think a lot of break points that were saved, at least in that second set, I just remember hitting a lot of forehand winners."
In the semi-finals, Gauff will face 2022 Indian Wells runner-up Maria Sakkari, who rallied past 23rd seeded American Emma Navarro 5-7 6-2 6-4.
Sakkari battled for almost three hours to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells for the third year running.
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