Halep and Osaka into Indian Wells semis

As the serious business of the BNP Paribas Open has come, and upsets have rendered several star names obsolete until Miami next week, Day Eight provided a sense of predictability for the most part.

The men’s fourth round matches were played, and each win was not a surprise, although achieving the success was not simple in all cases.

Kevin Anderson (7) was put through the ropes by Pablo Carreno Busta before eventually prevailing 4-6 6-3 7-6(6)

He will play Borna Coric in the quarter finals 

Borna Coric defeated Taylor Fritz 6-2 6-7(6) 6-4

Juan Martin del Potro (6) was in a deal of trouble against fellow Argentine Leonardo Mayer, down a set and a break, before firing back to win a quarter final spot.

Mayer won 83% of points behind his serve in the opening set and didn’t face a break point, whereas he created three chances to crack the Delpo delivery. He converted one of those to lead by a set.

The momentum carried Mayer to 3-1 in the second set, but del Potro was angry at this point and lifted his game to a level near where it should be.

A service hold, then a break, and it was 3-3. From there serve was held by both until the critical tie break in which del Potro took control to win easily and level the match.

The sixth seed continued to win the key points as he ran through the final set, using both of his break points to advantage.

The 3-6 7-6(2) 6-3 win was hard fought, but del Potro is well placed now, facing Philipp Kohlschreiber (31) in the quarter finals.

Kohlschreiber won his battle with unseeded Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-4 7-6(1) in match which could easily have swung either way.

Other fourth round results:

Milos Raonic (32) was given a walkover by Marcos Baghdatis who withdrew through illness

Raonic will face Sam Querrey in the quarter finals

Sam Querrey (18) defeated Feliciano López (28) 6-3 6-4

This will be the first quarter final at Indian Wells for Querrey, and his first final eight appearance at a Masters 1000 event since Paris 2012.

Roger Federer (1) defeated Jérémy Chardy 7-5 6-4

The draw has opened up for Federer, as it often does, other players helping him by removing Grigor Dimitrov (3) and Dominic Thiem (5) from his section.

Roger will meet the quickly improving Hyeon Chung in the quarter finals

Hyeon Chung (23) defeated Pablo Cuevas (30) 6-1 6-3

This will be the debut quarter final at Masters 1000 level for Chung

The two women’s quarter finals played on Day Eight featured highly rated seeds against unseeded players, but neither match went to script for Simona Halep (1) or Karolina Pliskova (5).

Halep won the opening set against Petra Martic 6-4 thanks to a fine serving display in windy conditions.

The wind seemed to upset Halep more than Martic in set two and the top seed was down 2-5. This was rectified and a tie break was ultimately required. Martic at 5 points each revived her match hopes by winning the next two points and the set 7-6(5)

Down 1-3 in the final set, Halep powered her way back, winning the final five games and the match 6-4 6-7(5) 6-3.

She will play Naomi Osaka in the semi finals. Osaka thrashed Karolina Pliskova (5) 6-2 6-3

Their only previous meeting was in Toronto last year where Pliskova won in straight sets.

Here Osaka dominated, breaking the Czech serve six times from ten created chances. Using the pace of Pliskova’s ground strokes to perfection, Osaka forced the fifth seed into error with her consistently precise placement.

Although she has lost to Halep in all three of their clashes, the most recent in the 2018 Aus Open, Osaka can feel confident ahead of the semi final, especially considering Halep has struggled in two of her last three matches.