No matter who Rybakina faces in Thursday’s semi-final, the third seed hopes to change some things after a strong start against Pegula. “Today, I didn’t start the best. Honestly, I was frustrated with all my mistakes,” the Kazakh told Tennis Channel after the match.

“I was rushing, and it was just going, and I couldn’t stop my, let’s say, attitude. I’m just happy that in the second set, I went to take a break, breathe a little bit, and managed to turn it around. There are some positive things, but also some things to not have the same mistakes, I would say.”

Rybakina has now faced Pegula three times this year – at the Australian Open, Indian Wells, and Miami – and won on all three occasions. She could now meet Sabalenka for the third time in 2026. The world No. 2 beat the Belarusian in the Aussie Open final, but Sabalenka came out on top in the Californian desert.

After blowing a championship point in their last meeting 10 days ago, Rybakina now has a shot at revenge. But she’s not viewing it that way. “Honestly, for me, it’s not really about revenge. I had a lot of opportunities, and it was, in the third set, kind of a roulette in Indian Wells,” she said of their latest meeting.

“Of course, I just know that we push each other and we can learn from these matches. But I want to come out from the match, no matter the result, being happy with what happened on the court, with what worked. Maybe some little improvements, it’s already a plus. Hopefully, we play many more times.”

They could well play each other again on Thursday. Sabalenka must first overcome world No. 45 Baptiste, who has already caused plenty of upsets this fortnight, beating Jelena Ostapenko, Elina Svitolina, and Liudmila Samsonova. And the top seed is looking forward to facing the American.

“I’ve been watching a couple of games of her. She’s playing great tennis, great variety in the game, great serving. Yeah, great tennis. I’m really excited facing her,” Sabalenka said after reaching the last eight.