Something about the desert must be restorative for the brilliant if self-sabotaging Maria Sakkari. No matter her surrounding woes, she seems to arrive in Indian Wells with the clearest mind and biggest punches. She made the final in 2022, at which point she fell into the blender of the Iga Swiatek 37-match win streak. That result pushed Sakkari into the top 3 for the first time. Returning to Indian Wells in 2023, she fought to the semifinal and lost to an ascendant Aryna Sabalenka. Now Sakkari is back in the semifinal, sloughing off an inconsistent few months, playing the best tennis in recent memory. Hear it from the source: “I cannot remember the last time I played that well in a lot of matches,” Sakkari said after her three-set win over Emma Navarro in Thursday night’s quarterfinal.

Watching courtside as she rolled through Caroline Garcia in the second round, I was reminded just how compact and combustive Sakkari’s tennis can be. In my mind I’ve been replaying this one inside-in forehand, so artfully disguised that I would have signed documents stating that it went cross-court even as my eyes saw it three-quarters of the way down the line for a winner. She covers ground with the conviction of a sprinter—she once considered moonlighting as one—and serves far more imposingly than 5-foot-8 might suggest. Locked in, she looks unplayable. Sustaining that for the duration of a high-stakes match has proved to be its own puzzle, particularly when rewards are greatest. In 2023 she tumbled out of the first round in the year’s last three majors. And in decisive moments, those ground strokes can turn tentative and muscle-bound. This week she described herself as “a very stressful person” but praised her brand-new coach David Witt—recently in Jessie Pegula’s employ—for being a funny dude and breaking the tension.

Wins can still do things that a coach cannot, and Sakkari’s third-round victory over Diane Parry was your industry-standard confidence builder. Parry, a young French player with a serious and stylish game, went up an early break in the deciding set. Sakkari wrenched that match out of Parry’s grasp with a nasty backhand pass to break back in the 2–3 game. Three consecutive games later she was howling with typically Sakkarian intensity, the comeback complete. She’s been solid under duress all week. The next challenge for Sakkari is Coco Gauff, who would sit on the same elite tier if there were a WTA draft combine, but she’s up for the test. “Well, it’s nice to have girls that are actually athletic and fit,” she said, looking ahead to the duel of jocks. “Then you feel like, okay, it’s time to challenge myself and play against someone that is equally as fit as I am.”

Holger Rune is no longer alive in the draw at Indian Wells, but his tennis this week was a reminder of how essential he might be to tour chemistry over the next decade. Yes, Carlos Alcaraz; yes, Jannik Sinner. Every time those two play is precious, and this is an instant-classic rivalry between well-mannered young fellas, one I’m overjoyed to witness and document in years to come. But you’ve also gotta have some Rune mixed in, someone to bring a little malice into the proceedings. That’s the recipe. What good is a totally purehearted tennis duopoly without some darker energy intruding from the margins?

Rune might just be too good to remain marginal, anyway, as I was reminded while he pieced together his comeback against Taylor Fritz in the fourth round on Wednesday. Late in the match, Fritz was serving well-placed bombs in the mid-130s, as is his nature. I wasn’t aware it was an option to take full cuts at said bombs, as if they were being fed harmlessly out of a hopper, but Rune did that over and over, staggering Fritz onto his back foot before he’d finished his service motion. There’s a restlessness, a slightly caged feeling to Rune’s tennis at its best, as he stalks around in his short-shorts and does vicious things to the ball as soon as possible. He brought some of his best to his windy quarterfinal with Medvedev, a spicy meeting between two guys with mutual fondness for a sneer. Medvedev took it in two close sets, and later praised Rune for being the sort of player who never gives you any rhythm to work with. While Rune has yet to define his own brand of tennis as confidently as Sinner and Alcaraz already have, he has proved that he has tools to bother the best, and needs to find a way to replicate that week to week.

This week was a well-needed rebound. Before the Fritz win, Rune had lost seven of his last eight against top 20 players. Partly this is because he was playing the tail end of last season through a back injury (and really looked it, too). The offseason must have been physically restorative, though it still didn’t resolve all doubts around his camp. After speed-dating coach Boris Becker, he has reunited with Patrick Mouratoglou, who has not covered himself in glory throughout the Simona Halep doping saga. Still, after listening to the recent interview our pal Craig Shapiro did with Holger’s mom, Aneke, I came away thinking that the Rune operation was pretty thoughtfully run as a whole. And after all, as Rune wrote in this tweet—which is either perfect deadpan or unintentional comedy—mom will remain in charge of all his supplements.

—Giri Nathan and Patrick Redford interview the hero who humanely vacuumed thousands of bees out of a tennis stadium.

—Indian Wells has added mixed doubles.

—The self-described “Taste of Tennis” interviews Jim Courier on his Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast.

—Tim Newcomb reviews all the stadiums at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

—Novak Djokovic is not playing Miami.

—Netflix has cancelled Break Point, but has announced a Carlos Alcaraz docuseries.

—The Saudis have made a $2 billion take-it-or-leave-it offer for tennis.

—Roger Federer signs on with Oliver Peoples.

—The International Tennis Hall of Fame has launched a cool online exhibit of tennis trophies.