Sabalenka was thinking: 'What could go wrong?'

INDIAN WELLS — The man on the microphone, which appeared to be the one piece of electronic equipment working correctly, kept asking for patience and telling us that everything would be fine, making it sound like we were waiting for a BART train and not a tennis match.

The buzzers and horns that let us know a ball might be long or wide, outside the lines were inoperative.

Minutes were clicking away. Five, 10, 15.

Up in the glass-walled media boxes, someone shouted, “They’ve kept score for a hundred years without electricity.”

The first two women’s semifinalists in BNP Paribas Open, Aryna Sabalenka and Maria Sakkari, couldn’t even walk across the court, never mind hitting a few warmup balls.

“For a second I was thinking, oops, something is going to go wrong today,” said Sabalenka. “It’s not going to be the same.”

Very little went wrong, if anything, on Friday for Sabalenka, who beat Sakkari 6-2, 6-3 as the tennis mavens choose to point out, book a place in the final.

In contrast, nothing seemingly went wrong for Iga Swiatek, the one at the top of the heap in women’s tennis. At least until Friday evening, when she was blitzed by Elena Rybackina, 6-2, 6-2.

That left Swiatek a bit bewildered and the writers and announcers understandably asking, how the heck did this happen?

“Well, I don’t know,” was Swiatek’s response. “Honestly, I feel like it’s more me and kind of my mistakes. For sure, Elena played great, and I feel like against her I have to play better.” 

Swiatek certainly did on Friday.

“I’m also not feeling 100 percent physically. I have a little discomfort in my rib, and we’re gonna consult with the medical team. For sure I’m going to use these days off before Miami (the next event), so now I actually have one more day.”

Both of last year’s Indian Well champs failed to get to the last step this time, Taylor Fritz losing in the quarters.

The way Sabalenka has been rolling her victory over Swiatek isn’t quite a shock. She’s 17-1 this year (the loss in Dubai stopped a 13-match win streak) and now is using her head as well as her booming serve.

“I wasn’t going for the lines,” said Sabalenka. “I’m not that good at tennis.”  

Some might argue with that idea. She was fine at keeping her cool after the delay.

“Stuff like that can happen,” said Sabalenka. “And I remind myself that’s OK. So I just have to calm myself and relax until they fix the system.”

Something different. 

“I understand now I can control myself in these situations. I can switch my focus and bring myself back. My goal is to keep winning.”

No matter what goes with the electronic scoring, or what doesn’t.