After going three sets in her previous two matches, Madison Keys had a quicker day at the office at the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday. Keys powered past Belinda Bencic 6-1, 6-1 to
reach the semifinals and extend her winning streak to a glittering 16 matches.

The Australian Open champ ripped 30 winners to only 25 unforced errors as she needed barely over an hour to prevail. It was a different story in the third and fourth round, when Keys, respectively, edged Elise Mertens and Donna Vekic.

“I think I started off really well today and got off to a lead pretty quickly,” said Keys. “And I felt like the past couple of matches, things have been a little bit trickier in the start, so trying to make up for the last seven hours I played on the court. “And make this one a little bit quicker.”

Keys beat Aryna Sabalenka in a dramatic Australian Open final to open her Grand Slam account. With Sabalenka's victory over Liudmila Samsonova, they are set to clash again in a power-hitting semifinal in Tennis Paradise.

Asked whether she wanted a rematch with Sabalenka or if that didn’t matter, Keys smiled. “I’m looking forward to playing whoever wins the match,” she said. “That’s who I’ll play and I’ll be happy to play whoever it is.”

And why not, with her scintillating form.

Bencic, known for her sense of anticipation and tremendous backhand, could only look on as one winner after another went past her. On Wednesday, the comeback Swiss — she became a mom last year — upset Coco Gauff.

The first set wasn’t as lopsided as the score suggested, though. Trailing 2-0, Bencic had a game point on serve, which was untaken. In the next game, Keys saved two break points. So instead of the score potentially being 2-2, it was 4-0. Among Keys’ many highlights was delivering a kick serve ace that got above the shoulder of Bencic in the second set.

That’s the way it’s going currently for Keys, who moved into a first semifinal in Indian Wells on her 12th try — matching the feat of Flavia Pennetta in 2014. The Italian won the title and given what Keys has done this season, few would be surprised to see the Illinois native do the same thing.

The rematch of the Australian Open final materialized after Sabalenka beat Samsonova 6-2, 6-3 as the wind became even more blustery. “Hopefully, I’m going to do better than I did at the Australian Open,” said Sabalenka.

The World No. 1 had to overturn a 2-0 deficit in the first set and recover from losing three games in a row in the second against the 24th seed. Her numbers of 14 winners and 17 unforced errors weren’t bad whatsoever given the tricky conditions.

Sabalenka, a three-time Grand Slam winner, drew inspiration from men’s defending champion Carlos Alcaraz on match point. She scurried around the court before engineering a backhand winner.

“I think watching Alcaraz play is helping me a lot,” smiled Sabalenka. “On this point, I was like, ‘Come on, Alcaraz would get it and he would make a winner.’ I was like, ‘Run there, you can do it.’ So I did and I was like, ‘Okay, I have to watch his matches probably more often so I start moving like him.’”