American veteran Venus Williams beat Johanna Konta to reach the last eight ©Getty Images

American veteran Venus Williams booked her place in the quarter-finals of the Miami Open as she fought back from a set down to beat defending champion Johanna Konta.

The 37-year-old dropped the opener but recovered to claim a 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 victory at the Crandon Park Tennis Centre.

The 10-time Grand Slam singles champion will next face compatriot Danielle Collins after she overcame Olympic champion Monica Puig of Puerto Rico, whose previous match was overshadowed by allegations from Caroline Wozniacki that the crowd threatened the Dane's family.

"The first set was definitely all her, and she came up with some amazing shots to break me at 5-all," Williams said. 

"There was not much I could do there, except hope I could keep up in the second and third sets."

Elsewhere in the women's draw, US Open champion Sloane Stephens progressed to the last eight with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza, the third seed.

Stephens will go up against Angelique Kerber for a place in the semi-finals after the German overcame Yafan Wang of China 6-7, 7-6, 6-3.

Fourth seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine is also through, defeating Australian Ashleigh Barty 7-5, 6-4 to set up a meeting with sixth seed Jeļena Ostapenko of Latvia.

Fernando Verdasco of Spain was involved in a heated contest with Thanasi Kokkinakis before beating the Australian in three sets ©Getty Images
Fernando Verdasco of Spain was involved in a heated contest with Thanasi Kokkinakis before beating the Australian in three sets ©Getty Images

In the men's draw, fourth seed Alexander Zverev survived a scare before he beat Spain's David Ferrer 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Zverev will play Australian Nick Kyrgios, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Fabio Fognini of Italy, in the next round.

Kyrgios was involved in more controversy as he publically criticised Fernando Verdasco after the Spaniard ousted fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis - the conqueror of Roger Federer earlier this week - 3-6, 6-4, 7-6.

Verdasco and Kokkinakis were involved in a heated exchange during the match because of the conduct of the Australian's father.

Kyrgios then Tweeted that he hoped his team-mate won the match as Verdasco is the "saltiest dude".

The 22-year-old deleted the Tweet before posting another in response to a reply from the Spaniard.

"I would honestly have told it to Fernando’s face, the reason I deleted my previous tweet was because I didn’t want to cause unwanted attention, but I’m just gonna leave this here," Kyrgios wrote.

"Thanks for blocking me, I’m sure that took a lot of courage."