Coco Gauff is dumped OUT of Indian Wells in the semi-finals - despite saving three match points - as American is beaten by Maria Sakkari after lengthy rain delays in California

Coco Gauff was beaten in the semi-finals of Indian Wells on Friday after a rain-delayed, three-set battle against Maria Sakkari.

Sakkari outlasted the American 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 after blowing three match points in the second to reach the BNP Paribas Open final.

She will now play top-ranked Iga Swiatek in Sunday's final after she routed Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-1 to improve to 19-2 this year, with her match wins leading the WTA Tour.

Swiatek has beaten Sakkari in three of their five meetings.

There were delays of 20 minutes and two hours during the semi-final between third-seeded Gauff and ninth-seeded Sakkari.

Coco Gauff was beaten in the semi-finals of Indian Wells on Friday night by Maria Sakkari

Sakkari eventually outlasted the American 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 after blowing three match points

Sakkari broke Gauff twice in taking a 5-2 lead in the second set. But Gauff won four straight games and fought off three match points in the 10th game to take a 6-5 lead.

Sakkari held to force the tiebreaker in which she fell behind 6-2 before Gauff won it, 7-5.

There were break points in each of the first six games of the third. After dropping serve to open the set, Sakkari twice broke Gauff and then held for a 4-1 lead. 

She held again to go up 5-2 and then one hour and 10 minutes after her first three match points, Sakkari hit a forehand winner to set up her fourth. She closed out the match on Gauff's forehand error.

There were delays of 20 minutes and two hours during the game because of heavy rain

Swiatek won the 2022 tournament as part of a 37-match winning streak. She had advanced to the semis when Caroline Wozniacki retired trailing 6-4, 1-0 in their quarterfinal. Swiatek has lost just 17 games through the semis.

Kostyuk hit 17 winners to 14 for Swiatek in the match. But Swiatek was better in nearly every other facet and didn't face a break point. 

Swiatek connected on 74% of her first serves, won 83 per cent of her first-serve points and 50 per cent of her second-serve points on a cool and windy evening in the Southern California desert.

'It was the cleanest match I played here,' Swiatek said in an on-court interview.

'I didn't really have any moment today in the match where I didn't feel confident.'