Desert's Desirae Krawczyk falls one step short of mixed doubles final at Indian Wells
It only made sense that Rancho Mirage resident and Palm Desert grad Desirae Krawczyk would play in the BNP Paribas Open mixed doubles competition.
Krawczyk is one of the most decorated mixed-doubles players in recent years, having won four Grand Slam titles, including two Wimbledon titles with Brit Neal Skupski.
The duo got a bye, then won their first match to move into the semifinals of the 12-team tournament, but for Krawczyk, the BNP Paribas Open has proven harder to win than a Slam.
She and Skupski fell one win short of the final, falling to the top-seeded Italian duo of Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, 7-6 (3), 6-3 on Thursday. It was an impressive win for the Italian pair considering they had to play their quarterfinal match earlier in the day, a 6-3, 6-7, 10-7 win over Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Timea Babos of Hungary.
Errani and Vavassori move into Friday's championship match where they will face American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Mate Pavic of Croatia. Mattek-Sands and Pavic beat the team of John Peers of Australia and Diana Shnaider of Russia 6-2, 4-6, 13-11 in an epic super tiebreaker.
Women's doubles
The women's doubles championship matchup is set, and will be a surprising contest as both semifinals featured upsets which will result in two unseeded teams meeting for the title.
American Asia Muhammad and doubles veteran Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands upset the top-seeded tandem of Taylor Townsend of the U.S. and Katerina Siniakova of Czechia 6-4, 4-6, 10-8.
Siniakova and Townsend were the hottest team going having won the Australian Open in January and the tournament in Dubai leading into this event. Their long winning streak was thwarted by a Muhammad-Schurrs tandem.
In the other semifinal, Su-Wei Hsieh of Tapei, who has won this event four times including last year, was teamed with Shuai Zhang of China, but were upset by the team of Olivia Nicholls of Great Britain and Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia 7-5, 6-3.
It will be the first-ever Masters 1000 final for both Nicholls and Mihalikova.
The championship match of Nicholls and Mihalikova against Schuurs and Muhammad is set for 11 a.m. Saturday.
Men's doubles
The semifinals are set and they will take center stage on Friday, literally. Both men's semifinals will be on Stadium 1 at the Indan Wells Tennis Garden starting at 11 a.m.
First it will be the top seeds Marcelo Arevalo from El Salvador and Mate Pavic from Croatia vs. an American wild card duo of Evan King and Christian Harrison.
That will be followed by the team of Sebastian Korda of the United States and Jordan Thompson of Australia vs. Fernando Romboli of Brazil and John-Patrick Smith of Australia.
None of the eight men's doubles semifinalists have ever won a title here.
The men's doubles championship match will be Saturday.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: BNP Paribas Open mixed doubles championship match is set
