Venus Williams advances to the last eight in Indian Wells

Venus Williams continued her fine form to reach the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells with a straight-sets victory over world number 20 Anastasija Sevastova.

Williams has not dropped a single set en route to the last eight in California and backed up her victory over younger sister Serena in the third round, who was playing in her first event since having her first child last September, to secure a 7-6 (8/6) 6-4 win.

The 37-year-old edged a tight first set on a tie-break against the Latvian before racing 3-0 up in the second to seemingly ease in the next round.

However, Sevastova reeled off the next three games to level the scores but a break in the eighth game proved enough for the 10-time grand slam champion.

Daria Kasatkina booked her place in the last eight after the Russian stunned world number two Caroline Wozniacki with a 6-4 7-5 success.

The 20-year-old fell 3-0 down in the first set but hit back to win seven of the next eight games to gain an early advantage in the second set.

Three breaks helped Wozniacki move 5-3 ahead and she came within two points of levelling the match, but Kasatkina responded once more to win four successive games to seal a straight-sets victory.

She will face Angelique Kerber who crushed seventh seed Caroline Garcia in a 6-1 6-1 triumph.

The two-time grand slam winner needed just 33 minutes to seal the opening set after breaking the Frenchwoman’s serve on four occasions.

A bagel looked on the cards in the second set as Kerber stormed into a 5-0 lead, and despite Garcia eventually getting on the scoreboard in the sixth, the German served out for love to seal a convincing victory.

World number one Simona Halep secured her place in the last eight with a 7-5 6-1 win over China’s Wang Qiang, while Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova overcame American Amanda Anisimova 6-1 7-6 (7/2).

Carla Navarro Suarez breezed past American Danielle Collins in a 6-2 6-4 victory, Naomi Osaka defeated Maria Sakkari 6-1 5-7 6-1 and Petra Martic won 6-3 7-6 (7/4) against Marketa Vondrousova.