Swiatek wins 10th straight match, bests Halep to make Indian Wells final

No.3 seed Iga Swiatek extended her winning streak to 10 straight victories on the Hologic WTA Tour with a 7-6(6), 6-4 semifinal win over 2015 Indian Wells champion Simona Halep. Swiatek advanced to the BNP Paribas Open championship match for the first time.

On Friday night, Poland's Swiatek came back from a break down in each set — saving two set points in the first-set tiebreak to boot — as she notched the 1-hour and 49-minute win and leveled her head-to-head with No.24 seed Halep of Romania to 2-2. 

A perfect 10 at 1000s: Swiatek's current run has come at the uppermost level of the Hologic WTA Tour's calendar. The entirety of her 10-match winning streak has occurred at the first two WTA 1000 events of the season, having won the title at WTA 1000 Doha last month.

Swiatek had to fight back from a set down in her first three matches this week, but she has now picked up two straight-set wins in a row, with her latest win over Halep following a 6-1, 6-0 dismissal of Madison Keys in the quarterfinals.

In just her second appearance at the BNP Paribas Open, Swiatek has blasted her way to the final as the tour's match-win leader. Swiatek has prevailed in 19 matches overall this season, with semifinal results at the Australian Open and Adelaide backing up her Doha crown.

World No.4 Swiatek is guaranteed to hit a new career-high ranking of World No.2 or No.3 following her exploits in the desert this fortnight, depending upon the results of the remaining matches.

Swiatek is the second Polish player to reach the Indian Wells final, following Agnieszka Radwanska, who finished as runner-up to Italy's Flavia Pennetta in 2014.

Thoughts from Iga: "[The match against Halep] was the toughest one," Swiatek said, looking back on her tournament so far. "Even though I was losing the first set sometimes [earlier in the fortnight], I still felt like I had a little bit more control over how the match is going.

"Today I had to come back from some breaks as well, so I think mentally it was the toughest one. Also coming back in that tiebreaker, it cost me a lot of energy, for sure. ... I think I would say it was the most exciting one probably, if I was watching it."

Tale of the match: Incredible forehands by Halep gave the Romanian a love break for a 4-2 lead, but she could not serve out the set at 5-4 as Swiatek slammed a forehand winner of her own on break point to reach parity at 5-5.

After two love holds, a tiebreak commenced, where Halep held two set points at 6-4. But a Swiatek volley put her level at 6-6, and at 7-6 the Pole blasted a forehand return winner to convert her first set point. Swiatek won the final four points of the breaker.

In the second set, Halep won three games in a row to take another 4-2 lead, but once again the Swiatek return game clicked into top gear. Another forehand return winner on break point at 4-4 gave Swiatek a third straight game and a chance to serve for the match, which she took with aplomb.

All told, Swiatek took charge when returning the Halep second serve, claiming exactly two-thirds of those points (14 of 21) to earn her five service breaks and clinch the closely-contested victory.