Serena ousted by sister Venus at Indian Wells

Venus Williams beat Serena Williams 6-3, 6-4 in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Monday for her first victory over her younger sister in more than three years.

Venus’s last victory over Serena came at the Rogers Cup in Montreal in August 2014. Serena Williams, who gave birth to her first child last August, was playing in her first official WTA tournament since winning the 2017 Australian Open. The sisters played doubles together in a Fed Cup match last month.

“It wasn’t very easy, obviously,” Serena said after the match. “It was good to play that and try to get in the rhythm and get into the swing again.”

Serena Williams entered the tournament unseeded, the first time she has faced her sister while ranked lower since 2008. Serena still leads the all-time series against her sister, 17-12.

In other action, 13th-ranked Sloane Stephens lost to 20th-ranked Daria Kasatkina, 6-4, 6-3. The reigning US Open champion is 2-4 in singles matches in 2018, including a firstround loss at the Australian Open.

“I mean, not going to be too down about it,” Stephens said. “There’s always next week and the week after.”

Australian champion Caroline Wozniacki, who won the Indian Wells event in 2011, beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-4, 2-6, 6-3. No. 4 seed Elina Svitolina was the biggest upset victim Monday, losing 7-5, 6-3 to 27th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro.

On the men’s side, World No. 1 Roger Federer needed less than an hour to dispatch Filip Krajinovic on Monday, mixing overpowering serves and pinpoint groundstrokes to advance to the fourth round.

Playing for a third straight day due to weather delays, the 36-year-old Swiss showed no sign of wear en route to a 6-2, 6-1 thrashing of the Serbian in the pair’s first ever meeting.

Federer, who had looked slightly off his game in his rain-disrupted third round match against Federico Delbonis, was his dominant self on Monday, winning 89 percent of his first service points while cracking six aces to just one double fault.

Krajinovic had no answer for Federer’s serve or relentless return game and ended up winning just 31 of the match’s 93 points.

With rivals Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray electing not to enter the tournament, and Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori both out of the running, the path appears clear for the Swiss to win a record sixth Indian Wells title.