Vesnina soars to new heights in Indian Wells

Elena Vesnina lost in the first round of qualifying at last year’s BNP Paribas Open in straight sets to wild card Julia Boserup, the world No. 179. The highlight of Vesnina’s trip to the desert probably wasn’t even the tennis, but meeting boxing great Mike Tyson.

A year later, after reaching her first Grand Slam singles semifinal, winning Olympic gold in Rio and reaching her career-high ranking of No. 15, Vesnina is soaring as high as ever.

The Russian beat a resilient seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the first WTA Premier semifinal of her career. It's her first time advancing past the third round in the desert.

What a difference a year makes.

In case beating Venus wasn’t impressive enough, Vesnina also beat Angelique Kerber—who will be the world No.1-ranked player on Monday—in the fourth round. It is safe to say that the 30-year-old is pretty happy about playing the best tennis of her life.

“I guess I’m on fire,” Vesnina said after reaching the semifinals. “It’s never easy to play against (Venus) because she is such a great champion.”

Vesnina wasted no time in getting back to work, playing doubles on Thursday night following her singles. While she lost her semifinal match with partner Ekaterina Makarova, with whom she won the women’s doubles title at the Olympics, her double duty run in Indian Wells has been plenty impressive.

The 14th seed will have a chance to make it that much better today when she plays 28th-seeded Kristina Mladenovic for a spot in the final. It will be a battle between two of the hottest players on tour, and both are seeking their first Premier-level final.

Mladenovic guaranteed that she will enter the Top 20 for the first time in her career with her performance this week, advancing past 2011 BNP Paribas Open champion Caroline Wozniacki.

"Mladenovic is on fire,” Vesnina said on court. “But so am I."