Elina Svitolina advanced to her second straight Indian Wells quarterfinal Wednesday after Katerina Siniakova retired with a right hip injury while trailing 6-1, 1-1 in their fourth-round match.
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“Very sad to win the match like this,” Svitolina said in her on-court interview. “Katerina, I’ve known her for many years and she’s a great fighter. Today I could see she was a little bit off, and of course, she played some great matches, great tennis earlier this week. For sure, it’s an unbelievable result for her. And yeah, very sad to (see her) end the tournament like this.”
Siniakova, who won back-to-back marathon matches against Leylah Fernandez and Mirra Andreeva to reach this point, appeared to be struggling physically from the outset and finally called it after 38 minutes. Despite the retirement, she still produced her best singles result at Indian Wells by reaching the Round of 16.
Svitolina, meanwhile, is through to her third Indian Wells quarterfinal and improved to 5-0 against Siniakova at the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz level. She arrived at this stage playing some of the best tennis of her career. The Ukrainian leads the tour in match wins this season with 18 and is coming off a run to the Dubai final.
Her level held steady Wednesday, albeit against a hampered opponent. Svitolina won 85% of her first-serve points and 64% of her second-serve points. She didn’t face a single break point and finished with more winners (12) than unforced errors (8).
She’ll need that form against her next opponent, World No. 2 Iga Swiatek, who reached the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Karolina Muchova. Swiatek leads the head-to-head 4-1 and has won the last three meetings in straight sets.
