Andreeva Wins Eleven Straight Games to Beat Sabalenka

Mirra Andreeva won 11 straight games to beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 6-0 on Wednesday at the WTA Finals in Indian Wells. The win took the 19-year-old to 2-0 in Group 2 and sent her into the semifinals as the group winner on her debut at the event.

Sabalenka led the first set 4-1 after an early break of serve. Andreeva answered by winning 20 of the next 23 points to take the set, and the match was over in 62 minutes. She won 45 of the final 55 points, against the world No. 2.

She had opened the tournament the same way. Andreeva beat Elina Svitolina by the same 6-4, 6-0 score in her first match, and she's the first player to win a 6-0 set in each of her first two matches at the WTA Finals. She has lost eight games in the tournament so far.

The head-to-head shows how fast this rivalry has moved. Wednesday's win cut Sabalenka's lead in their meetings to 4-3, and it came on the same Indian Wells courts where the two have built the matchup over the past two seasons. Andreeva said afterward that she was extremely happy with the result and with how she played.

The shape of the win matters as much as the score. Andreeva didn't protect a lead; she built one from 4-1 down against the biggest hitter in the women's game, on a hard court, in the season's last event. Eleven straight games is a run players make against qualifiers in February, not against the world No. 2 in November.

At 19, Andreeva is the youngest WTA Finals semifinalist since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009. She's the reigning French Open champion and the world No. 3, and she reached the last four with a group match still to play.

Sabalenka isn't out of it. She beat Karolina Muchova in her opening match, and she plays Svitolina on Friday for the group's second semifinal place. Svitolina earned that shot earlier on Wednesday by coming back to beat Muchova 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Andreeva closes her group against Muchova on Friday, a match that can't change her place in the draw. Saturday's semifinal is the one that counts, and she goes into it as the form player of the week: two matches, four sets, eight games lost.