INDIAN WELLS -- Last week the two 2023 Roland Garros finalists were practicing on these bouncy desert courts. According to Iga Swiatek, she and Karolina Muchova played at a “pretty similar” level.

On Tuesday, however, it wasn’t even close. Swiatek produced a 6-1, 6-1victory over Muchova at the BNP Paribas Open. It was over in 57 minutes.

Does it feel as easy as it looks?

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“Honestly, sometimes matches can be pretty weird,” Swiatek told reporters. “It’s enough for one player to not feel perfect and the other feel great. Then suddenly the difference is much bigger than it usually is.

“It’s tennis. Things like that can happen. For sure I used my opportunities and I used my chances. It’s not easy, but, well, I can imagine that it looks like it.”

It doesn’t matter who’s on the other side of the net -- Swiatek just keeps on doing Iga things at Indian Wells. She raced into the quarterfinals, where she’ll face the winner of the later match between No. 8 Zheng Qinwen and No. 18 Marta Kostyuk on Thursday.

The World No. 2 dropped all of four games in previous wins over Caroline Garcia and Dayana Yastremska -- including two with a scoreline of 6-0. Through three matches, Swiatek has now won 36 of 42 games.

Those six dropped games in three matches equal the best effort in history at Indian Wells, leading us to this question:

Swiatek, however, can step to the head of the class with a title Sunday. She won here in 2022 as well as a year ago -- and a third championship would be unprecedented. Her record at Indian Wells has swelled to 21-2 at Indian Wells, a .913 winning percentage second only to Martina Navratilova’s 100 % -- 10-0.

For the second straight match, Swiatek did not face a break point. Her serve, she said, has been a point of emphasis in recent months. But it’s her return game that has been truly flourishing. The goal for these elite players is to win half of their return games. For the record, Swiatek has won 16 of 21, better than 76 %.

“I feel for sure like I’m returning well and I’m trying to put pressure on my opponents,” she said. “But I wouldn’t say I change anything or something. I’m kind of going the same kind of process I always had.”

Swiatek is the first woman to reach the Indian Wells quarterfinals for four consecutive years since Karolina Pliskova from 2016-19. She has now beaten Muchova in four straight matches, including the 2023 final at Roland Garros, and is 4-1 overall.

On a rainy, blustery day, the match was delayed nearly an hour. Typically, Swiatek has a firm risk-reward ratio in her mind, but toward the end she ramped it up.

“I knew this big cloud is coming, and probably if I’m not going to finish, then I’m going to wait a bit,” Swiatek said. “On last two games, it was a bit slippery already, but I really wanted to finish. So I kind of played more risky -- but the shots were still in.”

That’s the way it’s been going for Swiatek here, even the circus shots are falling.