IT is March 20, 1997, and Venus Williams, a 16-year-old newcomer to the professional tennis tour, is playing at the Lipton Championships in Key Biscayne for the first time. Her beaded braids fly with every serve and powerful groundstroke as she takes a 6-1 lead over an older American player named Ginger Helgeson-Nielsen.
That’s when the shrieking began from the stands. A rat was running loose, creating a commotion. The match was suspended 15 minutes while the rodent was caught and removed. Williams, who was ranked No. 110 at the time, went on to win, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, and then beat 23rd-ranked Jennifer Capriati before losing to No. 1 Martina Hingis in straight sets.
She took home a paycheck of $6,750.
Eighteen years and $30 million later, there Williams was again, a few months shy of her 35th birthday, winning her 57th match on these now oh-so-familiar Key Biscayne tournament grounds.
She beat Caroline Wozniacki, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1), on Monday afternoon to advance to the Miami Open quarterfinals, where she will face 12th-seeded Carla Suarez-Navarro of Spain, who rallied to beat Agnieszka Radwanska, 5-7, 6-0, 6-4.
Williams is two wins away from a potential final against her kid sister, 33-year-old top-ranked Serena, who beat Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-2, 6-3, on Monday.
As the younger Williams wrapped up her match on Stadium Court, the elder Venus was in an interview room, reminiscing about that rat-infested day of 1997.
“At that age I was so young and didn’t know much,” Williams said, smiling. “I think I was playing Ginger Helgeson-Nieslen. I played Capriati in the second round. It was a long match. Hingis, at that time, was so much better than I was. I had a lot of potential, but I needed some more experience.
“She definitely, definitely dominated that match, but it was a good experience I learned from.”
Over the past 18 years, Venus has reached No. 1 and won 46 titles, including five Wimbledons and two US Opens.
Venus’s ranking took a major dive from No. 5 to No. 103 in 2011 when she was off seven months after being diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome, an auto-immune disease.
She began 2014 ranked No. 47, and many fans and experts figured she would not return to the Top 10. Now, she is within striking distance at No. 16. She has won seven of her past eight matches against Top 10 players.
In men’s third-round play, four-time champion Novak Djokovic defeated qualifier Steve Darcis, 6-0, 7-5, and will next face Alexandr Dolgopolov. No. 4 Kei Nishikori and No. 5 Milos Raonic also won.
No. 22 John Isner, the lone remaining American in the men’s draw, defeated No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov, 7-6 (2), 6-2.
While Serena Williams, 33, has been ranked No. 1 for the past two years, Venus’s fortunes are only lately on the upswing after health issues caused a long slump that stirred retirement speculation.
In January at the Australian Open, she reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in five years before losing, and with the victory over Wozniacki, she’s 4-0 in 2015 against Top 10 players.
Venus skipped Indian Wells, where Serena recently ended a 14-year family boycott after being booed there as a teenager. Venus said it was wonderful to see the warm reception her sister received there this month, but was noncommittal regarding whether she’ll return.
Given the way she’s playing lately, she might have several chances. Williams credits her persistence and optimistic nature for her recent resurgence, which comes more than three years after she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that can cause joint pain and sap energy.
“I don’t give up, and I believe in myself no matter what the odds are and what you may experience,” she said. “I have always seen it as something to overcome, and not something that could stop me.”
Unlike her sister, she has never tired of tennis, a problem for some top players even before their skills decline.
“I never get bored, actually,” Venus said. “Tennis is definitely not pushing paper. I mean, when you get out there you have no idea what’s going to happen in the point. You can try to plan it the best you can, but it’s all up in the air. You have to improvise every single time. That never gets boring.”
Williams won Monday with her familiar high-wire approach, swinging aggressively from the baseline. Sometimes she missed badly, but she hit 40 winners to nine for Wozniacki.
“Today I played similar to how young V would have played, either knocking a winner or knocking an error,” she said, with a grin. “It’s fun to just hit out, though. It feels good.”
She moved forward more often than in the past, winning 14 points at the net, and used her long strides to chase down balls in the corners and extend rallies.
The stadium crowd applauded Williams’s staying power. So did the 21-year-old Stephens, who could face her in the final.
“She is a superhuman,” Stephens said. “ I don’t know how she does it.”
“She just has so much belief in herself and her ability,” said US Fed Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez, an analyst for ESPN. “It is a great story for sure.”
Key Biscayne has always ranked among Williams’s favorite tournaments, because she lives 90 minutes up I-95 in Palm Beach Gardens. She’s playing in the event for the 16th time, which leaves lots of room for reminiscing.
“My first match here, there was a rat in the stands,” she said, with a laugh. “They had to stop the match. That was intense.”
She enjoys looking back, and also looking ahead. She’ll face Carla Suarez Navarro on Tuesday night for a berth in the semifinals.
Michelle Kaufman / Miami Herald
Image credits: AP