Something will have to give when Iga Swiatek plays Mirra Andreeva in Friday’s semifinal at the BNP Paribas Open.

As the defending champion, Swiatek enters the clash having won 10 straight matches in the desert, while Andreeva has won 10 straight matches overall. If their form isn’t enough to whet the appetite — and it probably is — another thing to consider is that the 17-year-old Andreeva upset Swiatek in their last tournament in Dubai in February.

“It doesn't give me any benefit to our match tomorrow, because what happened happened, and the past is in the past,” said Andreeva. “Tomorrow is going to be a new day, new match, new conditions, new country. Everything is different. I'm going to try my best to prepare in the best way. I think it's going to be an entertaining match, and we're just going to see who is going to be better tomorrow.”

When Andreeva bettered Swiatek 6-3, 6-3 in the Dubai quarterfinals, she delivered 10 aces and capitalized on half of her break points. As Swiatek will no doubt remember, she went 1-for-8 on her own break points, including missing out on three in the second game. That might have been a mini turning point. Overall, Swiatek tallied an untidy 33 unforced errors, or almost two per game.

“For sure, there is a lot to analyze and to learn from,”said Swiatek, who was pushed hard by Andreeva in their only other matchup last year in Cincinnati.

Swiatek wasn’t a fan of the balls used in Dubai, saying this week in Indian Wells that they felt like “potatoes.” But as tricky as the conditions in Indian Wells have been this edition — with fluctuating temperatures and heavy winds — the five-time Grand Slam champion handled them superbly well. She was already comfortable with the higher bouncing hard court. Swiatek only dropped 12 games en route to the semifinals.

In Thursday’s quarterfinal, she topped a player who beat her the last time they faced off, Qinwen Zheng. Swiatek was left in tears when the heavy hitting Chinese baseliner won their Olympic semifinal at a venue where Swiatek almost never loses, Roland Garros. 

Asked if the loss that day gave her extra motivation on Thursday, the Pole said yes. “For sure it does,” said Swiatek. “I want to show myself and everybody that I can do it. “It's not nice to lose to anybody, so for sure you want to have a little, I don't know, like revenge — but it's nothing personal. I think every player has that against everybody who they lose (to) before.”

So then beware, Andreeva.

But Andreeva already ousted two players in Indian Wells who she also triumphed over in Dubai, power baseliners Elena Rybakina and Clara Tauson. She is poised beyond her years and saving break points against Swiatek wasn’t an unusual occurrence.

In her own quarterfinal win over Elina Svitolina in the desert, Andreeva fended off five of six.
How does she cope when things get tight in matches?

Against Svitolina, Roger Federer sprung to mind.  “I think everyone is feeling nervous but it just depends on how you manage,” said Andreeva, set to return to the Top 10 on Monday. “Today I was facing a lot of break points and I just told myself, ‘People are expecting you to be like a champion, so try to act like one. When I was serving, I was just really trying to go for my serve or when I was returning, I was trying to kind of remember Roger Federer in my mind and go for my shots. That's how I try to deal with the pressure points.”

Andreeva is also capable of winning points in different ways, similar to the last teen who won in Indian Wells, Bianca Andreescu in 2019. Her Grand Slam winning coach, Conchita Martinez, is trying to make Andreeva more aggressive.

"I think that it's working pretty good,” Andreeva said in an understatement. The other semifinal pits World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka against Madison Keys in a rematch of the Australian Open final that Keys won. No wonder Sabalenka called both matchups “beautiful semis.”