Thursday 15 March 2018 17:10, UK
Simona Halep remained on course to claim her second Indian Wells title after she outlasted Petra Martic 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 in a marathon match to reach the BNP Paribas Open semi-finals.
The Romanian, who is the only remaining defending champion after Caroline Wozniacki's exit on Tuesday, eventually prevailed after two hours and 24-minute encounter against her Croatian opponent in blustery conditions.
Halep, who won the title in the Californian desert in 2015, has only lost one match this season - the defeat by Caroline Wozniacki in the Australian Open final - and underlined her all-court game with a strong service display and broke Martic's serve nine times.
The 26-year-old is yet to win a Grand Slam title but underlined her resilience in testing circumstances to recover from a break deficit in the final set and set up a meeting with Japan's Naomi Osaka who beat world No 5 Karolina Pliskova to continue her fabulous run.
Osaka who kicked off her week with a victory over Maria Sharapova blasted her way past Pliskova with a 6-2, 6-3 success.
The other semi-final will be decided on Thursday when Venus Williams meets Carla Suarez Navarro and Angelique Kerber face Daria Kasatkina in the two remaining last eight matches.
You can watch the ATP Masters 1000 from Indian Wells on Sky Sports Mix and Sky Sports Arena via the red button from 8pm on Thursday.
Keep up to date with the latest on www.skysports.com/tennis with news, previews, live blogs, reports and expert analysis. On the move? Head to our app for mobile devices and iPad, or follow our Twitter account @SkySportsTennis to join in the conversation.
