The 23 time Grand Slam winner Serena, playing her first tournament for 14 months following the birth of her child, beat Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands by a 7-6, 7-5 scoreline in her second round match at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden to set up the tie with her older sister and eighth seed Venus.

Venus beat Romania's Sorana Cîrstea 6-3. 6-4.

After finding out she was playing her sister in the next round, Serena said: "I would prefer to play someone else, anybody else, literally anybody else, but it has to happen now.

"So it is what it is."

Venus was complimentary of her sister's performance in her first tournament back since her long layoff.

"She looked like she never lost a step," she said.

"Great way to come back."

Elsewhere in the women's event, second seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark came through her match against Lara Arruabarrena of Spain by a comfortable 6-4, 6-1 scoreline.

The Australian Open champion is now due to face 23-year-old Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, who beat 28th seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-2, 6-4 in this Women's Tennis Association Premier Mandatory tournament.

In the men's competition, Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer won his first set against Federico Delbonis of Argentina.

The two players were then tied at two games each in the second set before play was called off for rain.

The most surprising result of the day in the men's was third seed Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov's 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 defeat to unseeded Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco in this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event. 

The 34-year-old Spaniard is now scheduled to face Taylor Fritz of the United States, who is also unseeded, after he beat Russia's Andrey Rublev 6-4, 7-6.

There were no such problems for fifth seed Dominic Thiem of Austria as he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Play is due to continue in both the men’s and women’s singles events tomorrow.