On Friday night, Poland's Swiatek came back from a break down in each set — saving two set points in the first-set tiebreak to boot — as she notched the 1-hour and 49-minute win and leveled her head-to-head with No.24 seed Halep of Romania to 2-2.
A perfect 10 at 1000s: Swiatek's current run has come at the uppermost level of the Hologic WTA Tour's calendar. The entirety of her 10-match winning streak has occurred at the first two WTA 1000 events of the season, having won the title at WTA 1000 Doha last month.
Swiatek had to fight back from a set down in her first three matches this week, but she has now picked up two straight-set wins in a row, with her latest win over Halep following a 6-1, 6-0 dismissal of Madison Keys in the quarterfinals.
World No.4 Swiatek is guaranteed to hit a new career-high ranking of World No.2 or No.3 following her exploits in the desert this fortnight, depending upon the results of the remaining matches.
Swiatek is the second Polish player to reach the Indian Wells final, following Agnieszka Radwanska, who finished as runner-up to Italy's Flavia Pennetta in 2014.
Thoughts from Iga: "[The match against Halep] was the toughest one," Swiatek said, looking back on her tournament so far. "Even though I was losing the first set sometimes [earlier in the fortnight], I still felt like I had a little bit more control over how the match is going.
"Today I had to come back from some breaks as well, so I think mentally it was the toughest one. Also coming back in that tiebreaker, it cost me a lot of energy, for sure. ... I think I would say it was the most exciting one probably, if I was watching it."
Tale of the match: Incredible forehands by Halep gave the Romanian a love break for a 4-2 lead, but she could not serve out the set at 5-4 as Swiatek slammed a forehand winner of her own on break point to reach parity at 5-5.
After two love holds, a tiebreak commenced, where Halep held two set points at 6-4. But a Swiatek volley put her level at 6-6, and at 7-6 the Pole blasted a forehand return winner to convert her first set point. Swiatek won the final four points of the breaker.
In the second set, Halep won three games in a row to take another 4-2 lead, but once again the Swiatek return game clicked into top gear. Another forehand return winner on break point at 4-4 gave Swiatek a third straight game and a chance to serve for the match, which she took with aplomb.
All told, Swiatek took charge when returning the Halep second serve, claiming exactly two-thirds of those points (14 of 21) to earn her five service breaks and clinch the closely-contested victory.
So that's 10 consecutive wins, 19th for the year, 2nd straight WTA 1000 final, chance at a 3rd on Sunday, and 5th WTA title overall. Oh, and a chance at world #2 ranking.
It doesn't get better than that!. Absolutely stunning.
What a year Iga Swiatek is having.
It was not an easy match by any means every time Iga got a break Simona got it beck forcing Iga to play behind for the majority of the match.
But her return record this year continued to impress and she managed to level the match each time. It was nerve-wrackingly exhilarating.
Her opponent in the final will once again be Maria Sakkari who she finally beat for the first time in Doha 2 weeks ago.
Like the semi final, I don't expect this one to be easy, Sakkari has a great serve and will get even more balls back than Simona.
If Iga can find a way to dictate the match with aggression the way she did in Doha it'll make things easier.
But hard to say whether that will be possible given the desert conditions of Indian Wells. And may also depend on what time of day they end up playing. Which I think will be afternoon.
Hot, humid conditions will equal fast ball movement therefore probably easier first serves.
Sakkari does have a tendency to get tight in big matches (she was after all 5/1 up against Kontaveit in the Doha semis), but having gotten over her 0-4 record in WTA 1000 semi-finals with win over defending champion Paula Badosa might help her relax.
It might come down to who handles their emotions and nerves better in the important moments. the only thing I'm certain of is that it'll be one hell of a final on Sunday!.
Jazda!
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