Defending champ Iga Swiatek powers into Indian Wells quarters

Iga Swiatek, comfortable as usual at the BNP Paribas Open, cruised into the quarterfinals with a victory on Tuesday in Indian Wells, Calif.

The second-seeded Polish player routed 15th-seeded Karolina Muchova 6-1, 6-1 in fourth-round action.

"Honestly, sometimes matches can be pretty weird," Swiatek, the Indian Wells champion in 2022 and 2024, said following the 57-minute victory. "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, well, I can imagine that it looks like it."

Swiatek is one of 10 women who have two championships in the Southern California event, and she is aiming to be the first to prevail three times.

She got her latest victory out of the way before a rainstorm that paused all action.

"I knew this big cloud is coming and probably if I'm not going to finish then I'm going to wait a bit," Swiatek said. "On (the) last two games, it was a bit slippery already, but I really wanted to finish. So I kind of played more risky -- but the shots were still in."

In other action, Ukraine's Elina Svitolina, the 23rd seed, waited out a three-hour rain delay to beat fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula of the United States 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

The delay came early in the third set.

"I got a little bit angry (about losing the first set), a little bit fired up in that second set and tried to play better tennis," Svitolina said. "I'm really happy with the way I was able to stay composed, even after the rain delay."

Pegula entered the day with a seven-match winning streak that included a tournament title in Austin, Texas.

Svitolina, in the Indian Wells quarterfinals for the first time since 2019, next will oppose either seventh-seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan or ninth-seeded Mirra Andreeva of Russia.

Weather permitting, eighth-seeded Qinwen Zheng of China and 18th-seeded Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine also were scheduled to play Tuesday night.

--Field Level Media