Venus Williams shocked on day of Dubai surprises

Defending champion Venus Williams suffered her first defeat at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships for 10 years on a day of upsets.

This was Williams’ fourth appearance at the tournament in the last decade and she had won the title on all three previous visits, beating Alize Cornet in the final last year.

But the eighth seed was well beaten in her third-round clash with Lucie Safarova, the Czech prevailing 6-4 6-2.