INDIAN WELLS, Calif.—Near the end of the first set of Venus Williams’ 6-3, 6-2 quarterfinal win over Carla Suarez Navarro at the BNP Paribas Open, a sound could be heard from the food court area located northeast of Stadium 1. A band was playing an instrumental version of the 1978 Rolling Stones song, “Miss You.”
The tune fit occasion and venue. A Southern California native, literally conceived with the intention of becoming a champion, Williams had been familiar with this tournament her entire life. She’d first played it in 1996 as a 15-year-old qualifier. Two years later, Williams reached the semis.
“This is just the beginning for me, my first years,” she said that day in 1998. “I'm going to move on, get better, and I'll talk to y'all later.”
Little did attendees at this event know the twist the word “later” would take. Over the course of wins and losses, illness and resurgence, Williams had long enjoyed a dialogue with the world. But Indian Wells had been marked by a long pause, the result of her not playing the tournament for 15 years.
Now, 20 years after that final four run of ’98, Williams once again stood one victory away from reaching the finals in the desert. She’d done so against a tricky opponent, one plucky and dangerous enough to have won three of their prior eight matches.
Match point from Williams vs. Suarez Navarro: