Iga Swiatek: Composure was key in getting Zheng Qinwen revenge at Indian Wells

Iga Swiatek would be the first person to say that she lost her composure the last time she played Zheng Qinwen: As the world No. 1, Swiatek lost to Zheng 6-2, 7-5 at the Paris Olympics last summer in a semifinal stunner, and left Roland Garros in tears after her chance to win a gold medal at her favorite venue, on her favorite surface, slipped away.

But when she faced Zheng for the first time since then on Thursday at the BNP Paribas Open, a tournament that Swiatek has equally grown to love, Swiatek kept her composure in getting her revenge. The No. 2 seed and two-time Indian Wells champion topped Zheng 6-3, 6-3 for her 10th straight win in the California desert, becoming the first player in tournament history to reach the Indian Wells semifinals in four consecutive years, and the third player to win her first four quarterfinals here following Monica Seles and Maria Sharapova.

"At the end, it got pretty windy, which made it super tricky," Swiatek said afterwards. "You need to adjust quickly and it's not that easy. But I'm happy that I was pushing until the end. ... I wanted to be composed and really focused, and I'm glad that I did that."

Was that Olympic match on Swiatek's mind?

When asked by a reporter in her post-match press conference if losing a high-profile match to a player makes her "more determined" for a rematch, Swiatek replied: "For sure it does. I want to show myself and everybody that I can do it, and I already knew before the Olympics match, I know now, but yeah, it's not nice to lose to anybody, so for sure you want to have a little, I don't know, like revenge, but it's nothing personal. I think every player has that against everybody who they lose before."

And though she's now beaten Zheng in seven of their eight career meetings, Swiatek dubbed the one hour, 34-minute affair "weird," mid-match meteorological changes and all. Leads of 5-1 in each set got complicated late, as she failed to serve out both and Zheng closed to 5-3.

Read more: Let her cook: Iga Swiatek wins on court, in kitchen at Indian Wells

But, on the whole, Swiatek was clutch. She hit the same amount of winners as unforced errors, 16 each, as Zheng hit two times her amount of errors as winners. Swiatek converted all five break points she held against Zheng's serve, while China's top player only won two of five. Those three missed chances came in the fifth game of the second set, with Swiatek already leading 4-1. Zheng, the tour's most prolific server of aces in 2024, was also twice broken from 40-0 up, down 4-1 in the first set and in the opening game of the second.

Despite the blips, Swiatek has still lost just 12 games in three wins: the joint fewest of any player who has had to play four matches at the tournament with Lindsay Davenport in 2004, Justine Henin in 2006 and Jelena Jankovic in 2008. She will face either No. 9 seed Mirra Andreeva, who beat her the last time out in Dubai, or No. 24 seed Elina Svitolina in the semifinals as she seeks her first final since winning Roland Garros last June.