Sakkari ends Badosa's title defense, faces Swiatek in first Indian Wells final

World No.6 Maria Sakkari advanced to her first WTA 1000 final on Friday night, defeating defending champion Paula Badosa 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 in the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open. The win sets up a battle for No.2 on Sunday, as Sakkari looks to end No.4 Iga Swiatek's 10-match winning streak to win the biggest title of her career.

Sakkari is into her second final of the season, having made her first in at the WTA 500 in St. Petersburg. Coming into Indian Wells this year, Sakkari had reached seven semifinals in her last 10 tournaments, making two finals over that span. Prior to Friday night, she was 0-4 in semifinals at the WTA 1000 level. 

"I'll be deadly honest that I never, ever thought about it. I have a lot of people around me telling me about the semifinals and that I was not able to get over this hurdle," Sakkari said. "But I never, ever thought about it because I was always very confident and had a lot of belief that I would just get over it soon and it clicked, I guess."

Tale of the tape: Badosa won the only previous meeting between the two, having defeated Sakkari last fall at the WTA Finals in straight sets. Neither woman had yet to lose a set in Indian Wells.

"I was very concerned before the match because Paula is playing differently than the other girls," Sakkari said on court. "She has a very heavy game. She obviously loves this tournament because she won it six months ago. I had full faith and I believed in myself every single moment."

How the match was won: With Badosa struggling to find her range and rhythm early, Sakkari dominated the opening set in just 37 minutes. The Greek star overpowered Badosa, hitting 11 winners to the Spaniard's 2, and winning 75% of second-serve return points. 

Badosa turned the tables in the second set on the strength of her serve. Having served at just over 53.8% in the first set, Badosa landed 72.4% of her serves in the second set. Though broken once, Badosa broke Sakkari twice to build a 4-2 lead and took care of her service games to force a decider. 

"I think I was just being a little bit too passive in a couple of games, then I tried to be more aggressive, but I was still a break down and it was tough to come back because she was playing really good her service games," Sakkari told reporters after the match. "But then even though I lost the second set, the way I lost it was by playing aggressive, which helped me a lot on the third set."

In the final set, Sakkari broke immediately for a 2-0 lead. Though Badosa gamely got one break back, the defending champion could not withstand Sakkari's consistent baseline aggression. From 2-1 up, Sakkari raced away with the set, winning the last four games to win after 1 hour and 48 minutes.

Up next: Sakkari leads the head-to-head over Swiatek 3-1. The 20-year-old Polish star earned her first win against Sakkari just three weeks ago in the semifinals of Doha. Swiatek won 6-4, 6-3 and went on to win the Doha title, her second WTA 1000 title of her career. 

"She's not the Iga that was a year ago," Sakkari said. "She has been playing very, very aggressive and I was actually very surprised with that change when I played her in Doha."

"I really respect her and I really like her because she's a lovely girl and she's very nice and whatever she has achieved she really deserves it. But on the other hand, I just have full faith and a lot of confidence in my game and in myself right now."

The winner of Sunday's final will rise to a new career-high of No.2 on Monday.