INDIAN WELLS: Aryna Sabalenka avenged her Australian Open loss to Madison Keys, thrashing the American 6-0, 6-1 to book an Indian Wells title showdown with teen sensation Mirra Andreeva.

Red-hot Russian 17-year-old Andreeva showed plenty of poise in a 7-6 (7/1), 1-6, 6-3 victory over defending champion Iga Swiatek, ending the second-ranked Pole’s bid to become the first woman to win three titles in the California desert.

“I was hungry,” said Sabalenka, who had made no bones about wanting revenge after Keys denied her bid for a third straight Australian Open title in January.

“That Australian Open match was really heartbroken for me, and I really needed some time to recover after that.

“And if I would lose today again, it would get in my head and I didn’t want that to happen. I was really focused — I was just really hungry to get this win against Madison.”

Keys, who was riding a 16-match winning streak, couldn’t get a foot in the door.

Sabalenka was untroubled by the cold, swirling wind on Stadium Court as she won the first 11 games.

“I think tactically I played really great tennis,” said Sabalenka, adding her strategy was to “just keep her out of the rhythm.”

The misfiring Keys finally held serve for 5-1 in the second, but minutes later Sabalenka sealed the win and lined up a shot at the WTA tour’s newest sensation Andreeva in what 26-year-old Sabalenka quipped would be “kind of like an old mama playing against a kid.”

Andreeva beat Swiatek for the second time in as many tournaments, having stunned the Polish star in the quarter-finals at Dubai last month on the way to becoming the youngest ever WTA 1000 champion.

Swiatek, who hadn’t dropped a set in winning 10 straight Indian Wells matches, looked supremely confident as she dropped just one point in her first three service games.

But it was Andreeva who claimed the first break of the tense first set for a 5-4 lead.

After Swiatek broke back and they reached the tiebreaker, Andreeva seized control, opening with a blistering backhand winner and pocketing the set on her first opportunity as Swiatek sent a backhand wide.

“I felt like I’m gonna go and play the tiebreak like it’s the last tiebreak of my life,” she said. “So I just went for all my shots. My serve was great. I just felt super comfortable and confident,” she said.

Swiatek put her frustrations aside and broke Andreeva to open the second set, breaking her twice more as the Russian’s errors multiplied under pressure from her opponent.

“The second set, it was a bit weird,” Andreeva said. “I just felt like she literally overplayed me, because she was playing pretty deep with good height over the net. It was really hard to do something with these shots.”

The roles reversed again, however, when Andreeva stepped up her attack and broke Swiatek to open the third, and she sealed the win with her third break of the set.

“I just decided to kind of still play the same but maybe go for my shots more, trying to play a little bit more aggressive,” she said.

“I feel also that I was dealing with the nerves and the pressure pretty good, so I just feel proud of myself.”

MANCHESTER: Manchester City twice blew the lead in a 2-2 draw against Brighton on Saturday as Abdukodir Khusanov’s own goal dented their bid to qualify for the Champions League.
Pep Guardiola’s side led through Erling Haaland’s early penalty at the Etihad Stadium.
But Pervis Estupinan hauled Brighton level and, although Omar Marmoush restored City’s lead just before the interval, the Seagulls levelled again in the second half thanks to Khusanov’s mistake.
City remain in fifth place in the Premier League, one point behind fourth-placed Chelsea, who visit Arsenal on Sunday, and one point ahead of Newcastle and seventh-placed Brighton.
The top four are guaranteed a Champions League place, while fifth is also likely to be enough depending on the result of the English clubs remaining in European competitions this term.
Reduced to fighting for a Champions League berth after a shockingly bad season, City are still far from certain to qualify for Europe’s elite club competition.
That would have been unthinkable just 12 months ago, when City were marching toward a fourth consecutive English title and a sixth in seven years.
Since losing 7-0 at Nottingham Forest, Brighton had reeled off four consecutive league wins and this was another impressive display from Fabian Hurzeler’s side, who still harbor genuine hopes of reaching the Champions League for the first time.
Guardiola made four changes from the 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest as Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, Ederson and Matheus Nunes were replaced by Marmoush, Ilkay Gundogan, Stefan Ortega and Rico Lewis.
City won a penalty in the 11th minute when Haaland found Marmoush in the Brighton area and the Egyptian was brought down by Adam Webster.
Haaland took the spot-kick, firing low into the bottom corner for his 100th Premier League goal involvement (84 goals and 16 assists) in just 94 appearances.
The Norway striker is the first Premier League player to reach 100 goal involvements in fewer than 100 games.
Not for the first time in their turbulent season, sloppy City were unable to hold onto their lead as Brighton drew level in the 21st minute.
Estupinan let rip with a fierce free-kick from 20 yards that caught out the wrong-footed Ortega, who was rooted to the spot as it hit the post and flashed into the net.
City tried to respond but Haaland lashed over from Gundogan’s pass and Savinho’s shot was blocked by Jan Paul van Hecke.
Guardiola’s men kept pressing and were rewarded in the 39th minute.
Gundogan picked off a miscued Brighton pass and unfurled a precise pass to set up Marmoush for a blistering finish.
City were still fortunate to go in ahead at half-time after a mix up between Nico Gonzalez and Ruben Dias left space for Joao Pedro to shoot just wide.
It took City’s leaky defense just three minutes of the second half to surrender the lead for a second time.
Adam Webster crossed into the area and Jack Hinshelwood’s shot appeared to be going wide until it took a deflection off City defender Khusanov.
With City’s rearguard in disarray, Brighton should have gone ahead, but Yankuba Minteh shot wastefully wide from close-range after Diego Gomez picked out the Gambian.
In a frantic finale, Brighton’s Carlos Baleba smashed over with the goal at his mercy.