Sabalenka, Rybakina Set Indian Wells Title Showdown

Aryna Sabalenka
Aryna Sabalenka (photo: Jürgen Hasenkopf)

INDIAN WELLS/WASHINGTON, March 14, 2026 (by Michael Dickens)

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka gave a dominant and powerful semifinal performance against upstart Linda Noskova at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on a scorcher of day in the California palm desert, where the temperatures soared near 100 degrees (Fahrenheit).

By the end of their one-hour, 28-minute semifinal on Stadium 1, Sabalenka unleashed her 37th winner of the last-four match and secured a 6-3, 6-4 victory that advanced her to her third final of the young 2026 season – and her third title match at Indian Wells in the past four years.

Sabalenka struck 11 aces, won 74 percent (28 of 38) of her first-serve points, saved two of three break points she faced and broke Noskova’s serve three times in 10 attempts. She outpointed the World No. 14 from Czechia 76-60 to improve to 2-0 lifetime against the 21-year-old Czech star. It all added up to her 16th victory of the season – including five straight. Sabalenka is 7-1 against Top 20 opponents in 2026. Her only blemish – in fact, the only set she’s dropped all season – came in the final of the Australian Open to World No. 3 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. 

“Definitely, it’s one of the best matches I’ve played so far here in Indian Wells,” Sabalenka said during a TV interview with Prakash Amritraj of Tennis Channel. “I’m happy with the performance, happy with the serving, and happy with a lot of things, to be honest. I’m happy to be in another final. I’ve given myself another chance to win this beautiful trophy.”

Later, during her post-match news conference, Sabalenka added: “Yeah, super happy with my performance. I think I really played great tennis. I was serving well. I was playing well.

“I like the way I put her under pressure on her serve, and of course happy to close this match in straight sets.”

Now, the 27-year-old four-time major champion from Belarus, who has recorded 19 of her 22 career titles on hard courts, will get her chance for revenge on Sunday afternoon. In the second semifinal, Rybakina faced World No. 9 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, whom she had beaten in three of their previous five meetings. 

Rybakina, the 2023 Indian Wells champion – who beat Sabalenka in that year’s final – brought a 16-3 record this season into her semifinal against Svitolina, whose 19 victories leads the WTA Tour. The two-time major champion, who will ascend to a career-high World No. 2 when the new PIF WTA Rankings come out, beat Svitolina for the fourth time in seven meetings, 7-5, 6-4 in one hour and 46 minutes on Stadium 1 under the lights.

The 25-year-old Russian-born Rybakina won on her third match-point opportunity after Svitolina broke her serve on her fourth break-point opportunity during a lengthy 10-minute, 14-point eighth game, in which the Ukrainian saved a match point along the way. More than 19 minutes passed between the first and third match point opportunities. She calmly navigated her way to victory.

Rybakina won with quiet but assertive power. She dropped just 10 points on her first serve. She added to her WTA Tour-leading 136 aces by hitting six, won 78 percent (36 of 46) of her first-serve points and converted four of 11 break-point chances against Svitolina. Rybakina outpointed her opponent 85-75 in advancing to play Sabalenka in Sunday afternoon’s title match.

Sabalenka will take an 8-7 career head-to-head lead into their championship final. However, Rybakina leads 4-1 in finals.

News & noteworthy

Since April last year, World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz has advanced to the semifinals and finals in 12 of the 13 tournaments he has played, with his only loss prior coming against Cameron Norrie in the Rolex Paris Masters second round last October.

The two hard hitters met Thursday evening in the quarterfinal round on Stadium 1 at Indian Wells. This time, the top-seeded Alcaraz prevailed over No. 27 seed Norrie of Great Britain, 6-3, 6-4, in one hour and 33 minutes. The victory extended the 22-year-old Spaniard’s winning streak on outdoor hard courts to 34, since losing to David Goffin in the second round at the Miami Open last year.

The win advanced Alcaraz into his fifth straight Indian Wells semifinal, where he will meet World No. 11 and 11th seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia on Saturday. The other semifinal will match World No. 2 and second seed Jannik Sinner of Italy against World No. 4 and fourth seed Alexander Zverev. Sinner leads their career head-to-head 6-4.

Alcaraz has begun the 2026 season with a 15-0 win-loss record and already has won two titles, at the Australian Open and at Doha. He will take a 6-2 head-to-head advantage into his last-four clash with Medvedev.

“Tennis is about choosing the right shot in about half a second,” Alcaraz said, after producing 19 forehand winners and 27 winners overall, during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “Sometimes I just miss the shot because I didn’t choose the right one. In my mind, I have like seven, five options, sometimes it’s tricky for me to pick the right one.”

Alcaraz, who outscored Norrie 73-57, improved to 6-3 lifetime against the British No. 2 and he’s now the third man to reach five consecutive Indian Wells semifinals, joining Rafael Nadal (2006-13) and Novak Djokovic (2011-16).

Around the Indian Wells Tennis Garden

• In the men’s semifinals, unseeded cousins Arthur Rinderknech of France and Valentin Vacherot of Monaco defeated unseeded Yuki Bhambri of India and Andre Goransson of Sweden, 7-5, 6-7 (3), 10-5, in one hour and 51 minutes on Stadium 1. Rinderknech and Vacherot combined to hit nine aces, won 76 percent (42 of 55) of their first-serve points, saved 10 of 11 break points and outpointed their opponents 78-76. Rinderknech and Vacherot are 4-1 this season and this is their first final together.

In Saturday’s title match, Rinderknech and Vacherot, who have lost only one set all week, will face unseeded Guido Andreozzi of Argentina and Manuel Guinard of France. The Argentine/French duo upset No. 1 seeds Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina, 6-7 (13), 6-3, 10-5, in two hours and two minutes on Stadium 1. They won 78 percent (42 of 54) of their first-serve points, saved both break points they faced and outpointed Granollers and Zeballos 87-78. The victory improved their win-loss record this season to 9-5 and Indian Wells with be their first final this season.

• In mixed doubles, top seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Lloyd Glasspool of Great Britain advanced to the title match with a 6-2, 4-6, 13-11 win over wild cards Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in one hour and 22 minutes on Stadium 3. 

Dabrowski and Glasspool combined to hit nine aces, won 74 percent (29 of 39) of their first-serve points and converted four of eight break points. They outscored their opponents 66-55.

In Saturday’s final, Dabrowski and Glasspool will face unseeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Flavio Cobolli of Italy, who upset No. 4 seeds Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori of Italy, 6-3, 6-3, in 68 minutes. The Swiss/Italian duo broke Errani and Vavassori four times in eight opportunities and outpointed their opponents 54-48.

Friday’s Indian Wells results 

Saturday’s Indian Wells order of play

By the numbers

Aryna Sabalenka is the second active player to reach the Indian Wells final on three occasions after Victoria Azarenka. She was previously a finalist in 2023 and 2025.

“Quotable …”

“No, it’s a funny story, because especially in Indian Wells, you know, what happened, it was the first time that I saw something like this, to be honest, on a tennis court.

“So, you know, after that, it was more in this tournament that a bunch of people coming with a bee costume. So it’s funny to see them in the stands, supporting with that costume.

“Yeah, the other day, I was with them, you know, at the end of the match a little bit. Today they brought me a bee costume, and they started to, you know, say, like, ‘Wear it, Wear it.’

“So, I had to do it for them. They were cheering since the first point until the last one. So it was, like, all right, I had to do it. But, you know, it’s funny.”

– No. 1 seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, during his post-match news conference Thursday evening, describing bee being part of his legend at Indian Wells. 

 

Search

Brigitte Urban
Tennis photographer
camera lens

International Blogs

Michael Dickens

Once-In-A-Lifetime Photograph Of Jasmine Paolini Tells A Great Story

December 29, 2025

Marc Raffel

2026 wieder Herren-Weltklassetennis in Troisdorf

December 19, 2025

Dietmar Kaspar

TC Augsburg startet neu strukturiert mit großen Ambitionen in die 1. Bundesliga

December 12, 2025

Florian Heer

Björn Kroll beim Hamburg Ladies & Gents Cup: “Wir möchten unseren Spielern eine gute Plattform bieten!”

October 26, 2025

Podcast

Categories