Indian Wells (US), Mar 13 (IANS): Venus Williams beat sister Serena 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 27 minutes on Tuesday to reach the round of 16 in the Indian Wells tennis tournament, where she will now play against Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova.

The elder Williams sister reached the pre-quarterfinals after clocking her 12th win in the 29th match with her sister, although this was her first victory over Serena since 2014, reports Efe.

Venus had dominated the first set and broke Serena's serve and set the tone of the match, keeping intact a noticeable trend in matches they have played against each other.

Among the Williams sisters, the one who had won the first set, was the one who had won 24 out of the 28 matches between them.

Serena was a mere shadow of her past self and managed to win just 54 percent of her first serve points in the first set.

Venus seemed to be cruising to victory in the second set after getting a 3-0 lead early on, but Serena, who was playing her first official tournament since giving birth in September 2017, fought back to take the score to 4-5.

However, Venus held on to her advantage and beat her sister in two straight sets for the first time since the 2008 Wimbledon final.