Johanna Konta’s defence of her Miami Open title ended on Monday as Venus Williams beat the British No 1 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 in their fourth-round match in Key Biscayne. The result will see 11th seed Konta drop from 14th in the world rankings to outside the top 20.

Williams, making her 19th appearance at the tournament and reaching the quarter-finals for a 13th time, enjoyed the vocal home support as she produced an outstanding display after coming off second best in a wobbly opening set.

Roger Federer to skip clay-court season after shock loss to Thanasi Kokkinakis Read more

The 37-year-old will face fellow American Danielle Collins in the last eight. Collins triumphed 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 against Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig, who had seen off world No 2 Caroline Wozniacki at the weekend.

Spanish third seed Garbine Muguruza followed Konta out of the tournament, with Sloane Stephens winning 6-3, 6-4. Stephens – seeded 13 – will next play 10th seed Angelique Kerber, who rallied for a hard-fought 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 victory over China’s Yafan Wang.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova was sent packing in the late match, with French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko seeing off the rain as well as the ninth-seeded Czech. The Latvian fifth seed prevailed 7-6, 6-3 to reach the last eight, where she will take on Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.

Fourth seed Svitolina overcame Australian Ashleigh Barty 7-5 6-4. Fifth seed Karolina Pliskova was leading Zarina Diyas 6-2, 2-1 when the Kazakh retired injured. The Czech will next take on Victoria Azarenka, who overpowered fellow former Miami champion Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-2.

Meanwhile, Fernando Verdasco had to fight back from a set down against Australian qualifier Thanasi Kokkinakis 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 to secure a fourth-round meeting with fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno-Busta, the 16th seed who ousted American Steve Johnson 6-4, 6-4.

Verdasco and Kokkinakis were involved in a heated exchange during a third-set change of ends, which spiralled after the former questioned the conduct of his opponent’s father in the crowd. A row ensued, after which the match continued and concluded with a frosty handshake.

The bad feeling continued on social media, with Nick Kyrgios tweeting that he hoped Kokkinakis beat “the saltiest dude” Verdasco. Kyrgios later deleted the tweet, with Verdasco then accusing the Australian of lacking the “courage” to stand by his words.

Kyrgios hit back with another tweet which he later deleted, in which he said: “I would honestly have told it to Fernando’s face, the reason I deleted my previous tweet was because I didn’t want to cause unwanted attention, but I’m just gonna leave this here. Thanks for blocking me, I’m sure that took a lot of courage x”.

Back on the court, Kyrgios, seeded 17, swept aside Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-3 and will next face fourth seed Alexander Zverev, who overcame a first-set blip en route to a 2-6 6-2 6-4 triumph over David Ferrer.