Maria Sakkari advanced to the semi-finals of the Indian Wells Grand Masters (BNP Paribas Open) when earlier today she beat Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in straight sets. The victory lifts the Greek star’s world ranking to number 5, a career high.

It may not be a Grand Slam tournament but the Indian Wells Masters Grand Masters, which is played near Palm Springs California, is often called the “fifth Grand Slam” and Sakari has been in brilliant form there.

Should she win the semi-final against the defending champion, Spain’s Paula Badosa, on Sunday 7.15am (AEDT), she will leap up the rankings to third place. And if Sakkari wins the tournament she will become the world number 2.

Her 7-5,6-4 defeat of Rybakina was not a straightforward one. In the first set Sakkari found herself trailing 4-1 before she clawed her way back to win the set. The Kazakh committed 20 unforced errors which helped Sakkari to take hold of the set and eventually of the match.

It was the 20th semi-final of her career and the third one so far this year.

The other women’s semi-final will be between Iga Swiatek and Simona Halep.

“I was a little bit nervous. But then I just had faith in my game. I knew that if I could break her back, I would get back into the match. Making a lot of balls after being 4-1 down gave me a good chance,” Sakkari told reporters after the match.

“In the past I would be very, very hard on myself. But now I’m very nice. I have a very nice and kind creature in my mind, in my body.”

It is a resolution that Greek-Australian Nick Kyrgios (ranked 132 in the world) could have adopted after his defeat in a hard-fought duel against world number 4 and perennial nemesis Rafael Nadal. Nadal won the first set 7-6 but Kyrgios took control of the second set to take it 7-5. The third set was finely poised at 2-2 with both men on deuce (40-40) when Kyrgios, who was about to serve, took exception to words spoken by a man in the crowd sitting close to actor Ben Stiller in the front row.

An exchange followed in which Kyrgios asked the man why he was speaking to him. He then pointed to Stiller and asked: “Do I tell him how to act? No.”
It was not end of the exchange as Kyrgios later berated chair umpire Carlos Bernardes for not managing the crowd.

The crowd turned against Kyrgios and Nadal who kept well out of it took control to run out the winner of the final set (6-4) and the match. Kyrgios smashed two racquets during the game and a fragment allegedly hit one of the ballkids in attendance.

In the other quarter final, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz Garfia beat Britain’s Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-3 to set up an all-Spanish semi-final with Nadal.