Indian Wells Open 2024: Maria Sakkari stuns Coco Gauff to set up final against world no.1 Iga Swiatek

Greek star Maria Sakkari stunned the world no.3 Coco Gauff in a late-night thriller to reach the women's singles finals of the Indian Wells Open 2024 on Saturday, March 16. Sakkari registered a 4-6, 7-6, 2-6 win against the US star and is set to face the top-seeded Iga Swiatek in the final on Sunday.

Swiatek, the former champion at the BNP Paribas Open, registered another easy 6-2, 6-1 win over Marta Kostyuk to reach the final as she seeks maiden title of the season. Swiatek famously defeated Sakkari in the 2022 final at Indian Wells. 

Resurging Sakkari registered her fifth consecutive win in the tournament with an impressive performance against the Australian Open semifinalist at Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Despite going down in the second set the Greek star made a strong comeback to take the third set by 6-2 and earned her fourth WTA tour win over Gauff. 

"I just kept believing, kept fighting," Sakkari said after beating Gauff. "I didn't give up. You can easily lose your head when you lose that second set from being match points up. It's obviously exciting. Just two years later I'm back in the final. This is the best place you can be. It's gonna be very challenging for sure, she [Swiatek] is the best player in the world." 

Sakkari's heavy loss against Swiatek in the 2022 final was the last encounter between the two stars but the former surprisingly leads the head-to-head record against the Pole with three wins in five matches. 

Meanwhile, in men's singles, the Australian Open 2024 winner Jannik Sinner registered his 16th successive win of the season to set up a mega clash against the world no.2 Carlos Alcaraz in the first semifinal on March 17. Russian star Dannil Medvedev will take on USA's world no.17 Tommy Paul in the second semifinal.