Alcaraz storms into 5th straight Indian Wells semi

World No.1 Carlos Alcaraz reached his fifth consecutive Indian Wells semi-final on Friday, advancing with a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Cameron Norrie.
With a win, the Spanird earned revenge on the Briton, who beat him last November in Paris. Moreover, extended his winning streak to 16 matches in 2026.
With his win, Alcaraz became the third man to reach five consecutive Indian Wells semi-finals, alongside countryman Rafael Nadal (2006-13) and rival Novak Djokovic (2011-16).
Alcaraz and Norrie traded momentum shifts throughout the clash, but the Spaniard largely maintained the upper hand. The first set ended with three breaks of serve across the final four games. Norrie then raced to a 2-0 lead in the second set before Alcaraz responded by tallying four consecutive games, ATP reports.
Producing a mix of baseline hitting with delicate drop shots and superb net play, the World No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings converted his fourth match point to advance after one hour and 33 minutes. Alcaraz won the Indian Wells title in 2023 and 2024, defeating Medvedev in both finals. Medvedev cruised past defending champion Jack Draper 6-1, 7-5, where the 11th seed is into the semi-finals for the fourth consecutive year.
In pursuit of his first Indian Wells trophy, Medvedev is on an eight-match winning streak, having arrived in California following a title run in Dubai.
Medvedev leads the ATP Tour this season with 17 wins. He is the fourth man to reach the Indian Wells semi-finals in four consecutive years, alongside Rafael Nadal (2006-13), Djokovic (2011-16) and Alcaraz (2022-25).
Svitolina stuns Swiatek; Rybakina tops Pegula to enter SFs
Elina Svitolina earned a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win in 2 hours and 9 minutes to send World No 2 Iga Swiatek packing and reach her second Indian Wells semifinal and first since 2019.
After splitting sets with Swiatek, the third set was a tightly contested shootout that went with serve until the No. 9-seeded Ukrainian broke for 5-4. She swiftly served out the match to earn her second win against the Pole in six meetings. The victory was Svitolina’s 11th career win against players ranked inside the Top 2, and her first such triumph since defeating Swiatek at Wimbledon in 2023. With the victory, Svitolina earned just her second win over the current World No. 2 in six meetings at the WTA Tour level, having last defeated her at Wimbledon in 2023. Since 2016, when she upset Serena Williams at the Rio Olympics.
Only Elena Rybakina (14) has earned more wins over Top 2 players than Svitolina (11). The result also marks her tour-leading 19th win of 2026, WTA reports. In the semifinals, she’ll face Rybakina, who ended Jessica Pegula’s run of seven straight semifinals with a 6-1, 7-6 (4) victory. Svitolina is 3-3 against Rybakina and won their most recent meeting, in Madrid last season, in straight sets.
With Rybakina joining a semifinal quartet that also includes Aryna Sabalenka in the top half, a rematch of this year’s Australian Open final is still in play.
Earlier, No. 1 seed Sabalenka came through a marquee encounter with No. 10 seed Victoria Mboko, advancing 7-6(0), 6-4 to her third career semifinal at the tournament.
The World No. 1 has now reached six consecutive semifinals on the WTA Tour; her last loss before that round was in the Cincinnati quarterfinals last August to Rybakina.
Sabalenka’s quest for a first Indian Wells title will continue against No. 14 seed Linda Noskova, who defeated qualifier Talia Gibson 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.