No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek is continuing to set records at the BNP Paribas Open. The defending champion returned to the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-3, defeat of No. 8 seed Zheng Qinwen, her 10th straight match-win here.

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Swiatek becomes the first player in tournament history to reach the Indian Wells semifinals in four consecutive years, and the third player to win her first four quarterfinals here following Monica Seles and Maria Sharapova. The Polish star has lost just two main-draw matches at the tournament in her career -- to Jelena Ostapenko in the 2021 fourth round and to Elena Rybakina in the 2023 semifinals. (In 2019, Swiatek also lost in qualifying to Ysaline Bonaventure.)

On Thursday, Swiatek looked dominant despite swirling winds.

"I think every time is a bit different," Swiatek said when asked about the conditions. "If I'm gonna adjust well, then I'm gonna be able to use it to my advantage in terms of, I don't know, playing more spinny with the wind so it bounces even higher."

This year, Swiatek has conceded only 12 games on her way to the semifinals -- tied for the fewest by any player who has played at least four matches to reach this stage, alongside Lindsay Davenport (2004), Justine Henin (2006) and Jelena Jankovic (2008).

Swiatek improves to 7-1 overall against Zheng, avenging a heartbreaking loss in last year's Paris Olympic Games semifinals, their most recent meeting. She advances to her third semifinal of 2025, and will face No. 9 seed Mirra Andreeva as she bids to reach her first final since Roland Garros last June. Andreeva, 17, rolled to her 10th straight win after defeating Elina Svitolina 7-5, 6-3 to make her second straight WTA 1000 semifinal. 

Superior serving, clutch play key for Swiatek: Between the two players, Zheng is more renowned for her serve. The Chinese player slammed a tour-leading 445 aces in 2024 and won a remarkable 76% of her first-serve points last year. But in this match, it was Swiatek whose delivery proved a greater weapon. The 23-year-old won 74% of her first-serve points compared to Zheng's 53%.

Her superiority was underlined by her clutch performance on return. Swiatek converted all five of her break point opportunities on Zheng's serve, while saving three of the five against her. Zheng will also rue to separate service games, down 4-1 in the first set and in the opening game of the second, in which she was broken from 40-0 up.

Scenic route to closing sets: At the tail end of each set, Swiatek wobbled briefly while Zheng played her best tennis. Swiatek led 5-1 in both, but was broken to have her lead cut to 5-3. The gulf was too much to make up both times, but Zheng's grit made the final scoreline more respectable -- the six games she won were as many as Swiatek's previous three opponents combined.

On avenging her loss to Zheng at the Olympics: "Well, obviously [coach] Wim analyzed this match," Swiatek said. "And we kind of spoke about it a bit, but besides the fact that this was the only match that I lost against Qinwen and I wanted to learn from it, it didn't really cross my mind that much, because I knew that this is on hard court and I knew what I did wrong on the Olympics."