\n<\/p>\n
Rising Russian star Mirra Andreeva became the first 17-year-old player to reach the women’s final at Indian Wells since 2001 after overcoming defending champion Iga Swiatek in the last four.<\/b><\/p>\n
She beat the world number two for the second time in as many tournaments, after knocking her out at the quarter-final stage in Dubai in February on her way to becoming the youngest winner of a WTA 1000 tournament. <\/p>\n
Andreeva extended her winning streak to 11 matches as she bounced back from losing a one-sided second set to beat the experienced Pole 7-6 (7-1) 1-6 6-3. <\/p>\n
She will face top seed Aryna Sabalenka in the final after the Belarusian avenged her defeat by American Madison Keys at the Australian Open in brutal fashion to win 6-0 6-1. <\/p>\n
“I feel that I was dealing with the nerves and the pressure pretty good, so I just feel proud of myself,” said ninth seed Andreeva on her recovery in the final set.<\/p>\n
“After she literally killed me in the second set, I was just ‘well, OK, might just try to fight’. There is not much I could do about it. She was playing amazing. <\/p>\n
“And I just kind of decided to grind and fight for every point. It doesn’t matter how I put the ball in. But I have to put it in. So I just try to do everything and in the end, it was not too bad.”<\/p>\n
Andreeva is the youngest woman to reach the Indian Wells final since Kim Clijsters, who lost to Serena Williams in 2001.<\/p>\n
She will face another big test in world number one Sabalenka, who took just 51 minutes to dismiss fifth seed Keys. <\/p>\n
It was a repeat of their Australian Open final, which Keys won 6-3 2-6 7-5 to end Sabalenka’s hopes of a third consecutive title in Melbourne. <\/p>\n
“That Australian Open match was really heartbreaking for me, and I really needed some time to recover after that,” said Sabalenka. <\/p>\n
“And if I would lose today again, it would get in my head and I didn’t want that to happen. I was really focused, so I was just really hungry to get this win against Madison.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n