Top-ranked Swiatek routs Kostyuk to reach Indian Wells final

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) — Top-ranked Iga Swiatek routed Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-1 on Friday night to reach the BNP Paribas Open final.

Swiatek improved to 19-2 this year, with her match wins leading the WTA Tour.

She'll face the winner of the other semifinal between third-seeded Coco Gauff and No. 9 seed Maria Sakkari in Sunday's final. Swiatek has beaten Gauff in nine of their 10 career meetings and taken three out of five meetings against Sakkari.

Swiatek won the 2022 tournament as part of a 37-match winning streak. She had advanced to the semis when Caroline Wozniacki retired trailing 6-4, 1-0 in their quarterfinal. Swiatek has lost just 17 games through the semis.

Kostyuk, of Ukraine, hit 17 winners to 14 for Swiatek in the match. But the Polish star was better in nearly every other facet and didn't face a break point. Swiatek connected on 74% of her first serves, won 83% of her first-serve points and 50% of her second-serve points on a cool and windy evening in the Southern California desert.

“It was the cleanest match I played here,” Swiatek said in an on-court interview. “I didn't really have any moment today in the match where I didn't feel confident."

In the men's doubles final, Nikola Mektic of Croatia and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands defeated fifth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4). The winning pair split $447,300.

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