Serena, Sharapova through to quarters

World number one Serena Williams led a stampede of top seeds into the quarter-finals of the Sony Open but big sister and three-time Miami champion Venus could not join the party.

On a day that saw play interrupted by rain, it seemed nothing could stop the cream of women’s tennis from rising to the top with Serena, a six-time Miami champion, Australian Open winner Li Na, third-seed Agnieszka Radwanska, five-time runner-up Maria Sharapova and fifth-seed Angelique Kerber all moving into the last-eight.

Venus could not complete the Williams family double falling 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 to Slovakian 10th-seed Dominika Cibulkova just as the centre court clock was about to strike midnight.

Meanwhile, Serena stepped it up a gear against Coco Vandeweghe, sweeping past the young American qualifier 6-3, 6-1 in 79 minutes.

Li Na progresses

Li was no less ruthless, the Chinese world number two demolishing Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0, 6-2 in 61 minutes while Radwanska grinded out a 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 victory over Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.

Kerber also needed three sets to get past Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

Fourth-seed Sharapova got a much-needed wake-up call after sleep-walking her way through the opening set before dispatching Belgian Kirsten Flipkens 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 while Kerber also needed three sets to get by Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

Former world number one and 12th seed Ana Ivanovic seemed headed for a quarter-final berth after comfortably taking the first set against eighth seed Czech Petra Kvitova but fell apart after that, committing 11 double faults en route to a stunning 3-6, 6-0, 6-0 loss.