Venus Williams has defeated Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3 6-2 to reach the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open, where she first broke out as a 16-year-old qualifier in 1997.
Williams has never reached the final of the desert tournament and to do she'll have to get by 20-year-old Russian Daria Kasatkina, who's yet to drop a set in four matches in Indian Wells.
At 37, Williams is the oldest player in the draw. She made the quarter-finals in her tournament debut in 1997 and notched her first win over a top-10 player before losing to eventual champion Lindsay Davenport.
Williams took 71 minutes to put away Suarez Navarro for the fourth straight time on Thursday.
Playing in swirling winds, Suarez Navarro committed 29 unforced errors to 17 for Williams.
"I don't care what's happening on court, I just try to execute my game," Williams said.
Kasatkina needed just 58 minutes to dispatch former No.1 Angelique Kerber 6-0 6-2 in the quarter-finals.
The Russian has knocked out US Open champion Sloane Stephens and No.2-ranked Caroline Wozniacki along the way.
"Maybe, yeah, from the side or with the score it looks like it was simple but of course it's not," Kasatkina said.
"I knew that in one moment if I will lose focus just for a second, they will come back and then the big battle, five hours again, will start."
Besides Stephens and Australian Open winner Wozniacki, Kasatkina has beaten the other current Grand Slam titleholders in the past year: French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko and Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza.
The Williams-Kasatkina semi is a rematch of their rain-delayed third-round meeting at Wimbledon in 2016. Williams won 10-8 in the third set.
The other women's semi is already set: No.1 Simona Halep against Japan's Naomi Osaka, another 20-year-old making a huge run through the draw.
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