Sabalenka and Sinner advance in straight sets to the semifinals at Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) — Aryna Sabalenka held off Victoria Mboko, 7-6 (0), 6-4, in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday, keeping the top-ranked player in women’s tennis in the running for her first title at Indian Wells.

After winning every point in the first-set tiebreaker, Sabalenka got the one break she needed to win the second set and move on to the semifinals against 14th seed Linda Noskova of Czechia, a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 winner over unseeded Australian Talia Gibson.

In the men’s draw, second-seeded Jannik Sinner of Italy defeated 25th-seeded American Learner Tien, 6-1, 6-2, ending the run of the youngest American — at age 20 — to play in a quarterfinal at Indian Wells since his coach, Michael Chang, won the tournament in 1992.

Sinner, who served 10 aces and double-faulted only once, will play his semifinal match on Saturday against German Alexander Zverev, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over France’s Arthur Fils.

Sabalenka hasn’t lost a set in the tournament, but was pushed by the 10th-seeded Mboko, a 19-year-old Canadian who won the 2025 Canadian Open.

Sabalenka put 94% of her first serves in play and was not broken, but did fight off five break points.

“I was focused on my game plan. I was just playing point by point,” Sabalenka said. “I’m pretty happy with the way I’m serving so far.”

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis