Coco Gauff was beaten in the semi-finals of Indian Wells on Friday after a rain-delayed, three-set battle against Maria Sakkari.
Sakkari outlasted the American 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 after blowing three match points in the second to reach the BNP Paribas Open final.
She will now play top-ranked Iga Swiatek in Sunday’s final after she routed Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-1 to improve to 19-2 this year, with her match wins leading the WTA Tour.There were break points in each of the first six games of the third. After dropping serve to open the set, Sakkari twice broke Gauff and then held for a 4-1 lead.
She held again to go up 5-2 and then one hour and 10 minutes after her first three match points, Sakkari hit a forehand winner to set up her fourth. She closed out the match on Gauff’s forehand error.
