Published: 09:43, March 13, 2025
Keys keeps streak alive, Bencic stuns Gauff to reach Indian Wells quarters
By Reuters
USA's Madison Keys reaches to return the ball to Croatia's Donna Vekic during the Round of 16 women's singles match of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California on March 12, 2025. (PHOTO / AFP)

Madison Keys kept her winning streak alive against Donna Vekic 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-3 to reach the Indian Wells quarterfinals on Wednesday, as fellow American Coco Gauff fell to Swiss wildcard Belinda Bencic and top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka rolled through.

The Australian Open champion Keys notched her 15th straight victory with seven aces against the 19th seed, recovering from a slow start to set up a meeting with the Tokyo Olympic champion Bencic.

Vekic, the silver medallist in Paris, put up a terrific defense in the first set, fending off three break points in the second game and another in the fourth, and dropped only three of her first-serve points.

She had a 5-3 head start in the tiebreak but Keys dug in her heels, clinching it with an unreturnable serve as the Croatian thrust her racquet to the court in frustration.

Croatia's Donna Vekic serves the ball to USA's Madison Keys during the Round of 16 women's singles match of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California on March 12, 2025. (PHOTO / AFP)

Keys took the momentum from there and she closed out the comeback win with one of her lethal forehands to wild cheers from the home fans.

The American joy was tempered earlier in the day, as Bencic pulled off the upset against the third seed Gauff, 3-6 6-3 6-4, less than a year after giving birth.

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In the tightly-contested third set, it was Bencic who struck first as she came back from 0-40 down to break Gauff for a 5-4 lead and closed out the victory on her first match point when the top-ranked American ripped a forward long.

"Obviously, this is why you are practicing and working hard all your life, so it's super nice to play in this kind of atmosphere," Bencic said in her on-court interview.

"The way you cheered before the match ... I had chills and goosebumps and I kind of just put the serve into the court because I was so nervous."

Coco Gauff of the United States serves against Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in their fourth round match during the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 12, 2025 in Indian Wells, California. (PHOTO / AFP)

Gauff started aggressively and committed five double faults in the first set, including three in one game, but was only broken once en route to wrapping it up in 51 minutes when Bencic sent a forward wide.

But Bencic was firing on all cylinders in the middle set and, despite twice requiring medical attention for foot and hand issues, built a 4-1 lead before securing it when Gauff returned a serve into the net.

Women's top seed Aryna Sabalenka easily dispatched British lucky loser Sonay Kartal 6-1 6-2, and will meet either Jasmine Paolini or Liudmila Samsonova in the final eight.

In other early action, 11th seed Ben Shelton beat fellow American Brandon Nakashima 7-6(6) 6-1 to set up a quarterfinal against third seed Taylor Fritz or Briton Jack Draper.

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Men's second seed Carlos Alcaraz will kick off the evening session against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov for a spot in the quarterfinals against Argentine Francisco Cerundolo or Austrian Alex de Minaur.