Venus Williams loses in Indian Wells despite promising start

Japanese qualifier Nao Hibino reached the second round of the Indian Wells by defeating American wildcard Venus Williams 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Thursday night.

The American accounted for herself well, hitting several glorious shots across the course of the match. However, she was unable to sustain the level that saw her race through the opening set 6-2, falling away and eventually succumbing to a third set bagel as she exited the BNP Paribas Open.

Hibino, ranked No 80, will face No 17 seed Veronika Kudermetova next.

Indian Wells WTA 1000, other first-round results (Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hard, USD 9.258.080, most recent results first):

• Viktoriya Tomova vs. Sofia Kenin
• Elisabetta Cocciaretto vs. Peyton Stearns
• Sloane Stephens vs. Mayar Sherif
• Diana Shnaider vs. Ana Bogdan
• Cristina Bucsa vs. Caroline Dolehide
• Diane Parry vs. Martina Trevisan
• Elina Avanesyan vs. Oceane Dodin
• Naomi Osaka vs. Sara Errani
• Xinyu Wang vs. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova
• Varvara Gracheva vs. Yue Yuan
• Liv Hovde vs. Lesia Tsurenko
• Taylor Townsend vs. Magda Linette: thursday
• Anna Blinkova vs. Karolina Pliskova: thursday
• Robin Montgomery vs. Hailey Baptiste: thursday
• Caroline Wozniacki (WC) beat Lin Zhu: 7-6 (6), 6-1
• Nuria Parrizas Diaz (Q) beat Mccartney Kessler (WC): 6-3, 7-6 (3)
• Danielle Collins beat Erika Andreeva (Q): 7-6 (3), 7-6 (6)
• Nadia Podoroska (LL) beat Ashlyn Krueger (WC): 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
• Emma Raducanu (WC) beat Rebeka Masarova (Q): 6-2, 6-3
• Katerina Siniakova beat Greet Minnen: 7-5, 7-6 (3)
• Clara Burel beat Xiyu Wang: 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
• Lucia Bronzetti beat Magdalena Frech: 6-2, 6-4
• Yulia Putintseva beat Tamara Korpatsch: 6-2, 6-3
• Bernarda Pera (Q) beat Daria Saville: 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (5)
• Camila Giorgi beat Katie Boulter: 6-3, 6-2
• Katie Volynets (WC) beat Mirra Andreeva: 7-5, 7-5
• Mai Hontama (Q) beat Shuai Zhang: 5-7, 6-2, 6-0
• Rebecca Sramkova (Q) beat Yafan Wang: 6-4, 6-0
• Tatjana Maria beat Arantxa Rus: 7-6 (5), 6-2
• Marie Bouzkova beat Sara Sorribes Tormo: 6-1, 6-1
• Angelique Kerber beat Petra Martic: 6-3, 6-4