INDIAN WELLS: Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams slumped to a three-set defeat at the hands of Russian Elena Vesnina Thursday in the quarter-finals of the WTA Indian Wells tournament.
Williams, runner-up to her sister Serena at the Australian Open in January, gave away too much ground with a lethargic start and Vesnina closed it out 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
In the semi-finals Vesnina will face France's Kristina Mladenovic, a 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 winner over former world number one Caroline Wozniacki.