Defending champion Iga Swiatek clinched her place in the Indian Wells quarter-finals with a 6-1 6-1 thrashing of Karolina Muchova.
Poland’s Swiatek is bidding to become the first woman to win the California tournament three times, having also sealed the title in 2022.
Swiatek’s match against Muchova was delayed by almost an hour because of rain, but it then took her just 57 minutes to secure a dominant victory in which she did not face a single break point.
The world number two has dropped just six games on her way to reaching the last eight and will face either China’s eighth seed Zheng Qinwen or 18th seed Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine next.
“Sometimes matches can be pretty weird,” Swiatek said. “It’s enough for one player to not feel perfect and the other feel great. Then suddenly the difference is much bigger than it usually is.
“It’s tennis. Things like that can happen. For sure I used my opportunities and I used my chances. It’s not easy, but, I can imagine that it looks like it.”
The 23-year-old five-time Grand Slam champion is the first woman to reach the Indian Wells quarter-finals for four consecutive years since Karolina Pliskova, who achieved the feat between 2016 and 2019.
