(Reuters) – Aryna Sabalenka put on a serving masterclass to crush American Coco Gauff 6-4 6-0 on Wednesday and reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells.
The Australian Open champion never faced a break point and used her hard and accurate serve to dispatch Gauff.
Sabalenka appears to have put her past struggles with double faults firmly behind her, not committing a single one against Gauff, while pounding down five aces and winning 87% of her first serves.
Gauff quickly fell 2-0 down in the first set and was unable to match the Belarusian’s level despite playing well.
Second seed Sabalenka kept her foot on the gas to dominate the second set despite the California crowd’s attempts to urge on the sixth-seeded Gauff.
“I knew you guys wanted to send me home,” a smiling Sabalenka told the crowd in an on-court interview.
“Thank you everyone for coming and supporting us, mostly her, but us. The atmosphere was unbelievable. I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here as long as I can.”
The hard-hitting Sabalenka will next face either seventh-seeded Greek Maria Sakkari or 15th-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Toby Davis)
