Mirra Andreeva showed her respect for Aryna Sabalenka by acknowledging the Belarusian's dominance in their matchups but also noted that she would be out for revenge when they clash in the Indian Wells final.
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On the semifinal day in the desert, the Russian teenage sensation beat Iga Swiatek 7-6 (1) 1-6 6-3 while the top-seeded Belarusian absolutely annihilated Madison Keys 6-0 6-1 in a rematch of this year's Australian Open final. Now, the Indian Wells final is set to feature the recent Dubai champion riding an 11-match winning streak and the top-ranked player in the game, who is hoping to win her first title since a heartbreaking final loss in Melbourne.
Heading into the match, Sabalenka leads their head-to-head 4-1. This year, Andreeva has lost only three matches and two of those losses came against the Belarusian, who handed her a 6-3 6-2 loss in the Brisbane semifinal and a 6-1 6-2 defeat in the Australian Open round-of-16.
Andreeva: Sabalenka almost killed me at the Australian Open, I will go for revenge in Indian Wells
"The matches that we played this year didn't really go my way. I can say she almost killed me, especially in Melbourne.
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"I'm gonna try to take revenge, because I still have nothing to lose, and I feel like the match is going to be probably entertaining. There is going to be a lot of winners, a lot of great points.
"Now it's going to be (coach) Conchita's job to prepare me well for this match, so I hope she is gonna do it. But I will just go out there as for every other match and try to play my best and to fight for every point, and then we're gonna see who's gonna win."
Andreeva's lone win against Sabalenka came during last year's French Open. While the 17-year-old was dominated by the world No. 1 in two of their previous meetings this year, the Russian has been on fire lately and it is fair to expect her to compete much better this time and put up much bigger resistance, and possibly win.
