Maria Sharapova was dumped out of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells by defending champion Flavia Pennetta – but world number one Serena Williams did manage to reach the quarter-finals.

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Fresh from beating Victoria Azarenka in Monday’s third round, Sharapova looked ready to continue her fine run of form and took the first set against Pennetta, who looked distracted and emotional throughout the opening games.

 

 

The Italian rallied, however, forcing Sharapova into a decider before tightening her grip on the match and closing out a 3-6 6-3 6-2 victory.

Williams had earlier recovered from a nightmare start to overcome her fellow American Sloane Stephens 6-7 (3/7) 6-2 6-2 in the Coachella Valley.

The world’s best player dropped her first two service games in the fourth career meeting between two former friends, whose relationship had cooled in the wake of Stephens’ solitary win at the 2013 Australian Open.

But Williams became increasingly dominant as the match went on and secured her win in two hours and seven minutes.

She will next tackle Timea Bacsinszky in the last eight after the Swiss hopeful’s 4-6 6-1 6-1 triumph over Elina Svitolina.

Awaiting Pennetta is Germany’s 24th seed Sabine Lisicki, who saw off Caroline Garcia 6-4 6-4.

Lesia Tsurenko emerged victorious from an epic late-night battle with sixth seed Eugenie Bouchard.

The Canadian, a Wimbledon finalist last summer, had to scrap to win the first set on a tie-break and could not keep Tsurenko under wraps as the world number 92 steadily turned the screw before clinching a 6-7 (5/7) 7-5 6-4 win after two hours and 50 minutes of play.

Carla Suarez Navarro progressed to the quarter-finals by beating British number one Heather Watson 7-6 (7/5) 3-6 6-1 and standing between her and a place in the final four is Simona Halep, the Romanian who defeated Karolina Pliskova 6-4 6-4.

Elsewhere, Jelena Jankovic reeled off five straight games as she beat Belinda Bencic 6-3 3-6 6-3.