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Venus Williams' semifinal win was pure joy

Thomas Peter / REUTERS

There's been a glow about Venus Williams these past two weeks in Melbourne; a radiating sense of ease and exuberance. She has looked and sounded like someone who knows who she is, and is secure in that knowledge, and is perfectly at peace with the place she has made for herself in the world.

"All I can say is it's been a wonderful, wonderful career for me full of positives," she told reporters after her third-round win at the Australian Open. "That's what I focus on. I mean, what else can I do? It's a beautiful life. That's how I feel about every single thing."

Taken out of context, that's a moving expression of gratitude and fulfillment from the seven-time Grand Slam champion. That this was Venus responding to a question about Doug Adler - the commentator who was removed from ESPN tournament coverage for using racially insensitive language to describe Venus' play during her second-round win - spoke volumes. Whatever Adler's intent - he said he was referring to Venus' aggressive "guerilla" tactics, but the homophone and its charged overtone was impossible to ignore - it didn't seem to puncture Venus' self-certitude and focus.

Which doesn't necessarily mean Adler's words didn't touch a nerve. Throughout her career, that kind of language - whether coded or openly hostile - has never been far outside the frame. But she chose instead to focus on the positives in her life, exuding the same tranquillity and assuredness with which she ended her boycott and returned to Indian Wells last March for the first time in 15 years.

Unlike at Indian Wells, though, that feeling has manifested itself on the court in Melbourne, where she has played with quiet confidence and hardened steel, where she has been reaching back to crank heavy serves into the body, bashing forehand winners on the run, gutting out high-stakes points, and fighting, and fighting, and fighting for every game, every point, every inch of court. Fourteen years removed from making her first - and, until now, only - Aussie Open final, and over eight years since making a major final of any kind, she has fought her way back. At the age of 36, she has a chance to lift the Daphne Akhurst Cup for the first time.

She had to withstand a daunting challenge Thursday in the semifinals against CoCo Vandeweghe, a huge hitter who is 11 years her junior and was coming off back-to-back dominant wins over the No. 1- and No. 7-ranked players in the world. Venus weathered the anvil-like weight of Vandeweghe's groundstrokes, and survived dropping the opening first set. She doggedly kept points alive with her defense, and blocked back big first serves. She warded off 12 of 13 break chances. And on her fourth match point, she watched a Vandeweghe forehand sail long, then let the elation pour out of her until Rod Laver Arena was fully submerged.

"That moment was just joy," she said later. Just joy. It was impossible not to want to share in it.

It was impossible in that moment not to reflect on everything Venus has been through, everything she's done, in the years since she last accomplished what she did Thursday: from facing the loss of her half-sister, to helping secure equal prize money for men and women at Wimbledon - the last holdout against it among the four major tournaments - with her leadership and relentless lobbying, to playing through an incurable autoimmune disease, to working her way back up the rankings in her mid-thirties after injuries and illness dropped her out of the top 100. In that moment, you could feel all of it spilling out at once.

"This, right now, I think will help me to feel grateful for everything that I have," she said back in 2011, after being diagnosed with Sjorgen's syndrome. "And at the same time it makes me want to get up and fight harder every single day."

She's been fighting a long time. She's still fighting. And though the fight is ultimately what matters most, getting to see her rewarded, getting to see her win, was enough to make it feel, for a moment, like the world was working the way it was supposed to.

"What I will say about sport, I think why people love sport so much, is because you see everything in a line," Venus told reporters after the match. "In that moment there is no do-over, there's no retake, there is no voice-over. It's triumph and disaster witnessed in real time. This is why people live and die for sport, because you can't fake it. You can't. It's either you do it or you don't. ...

"Is it an athlete's job to inspire? Inherently what I think athletes do at a top level inspires people, but each person takes that responsibility differently."

However she has taken the responsibility, Venus Williams was inspiring on Thursday. And to hear her tell it, she's got plenty more inspiration to offer.

"Everyone has their moment in the sun. I'd like to keep it going," she said. "I've got nothing else to do."

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