World number one Serena Williams has decided to put an end to her boycott of Indian Wells, 14 years after suffering racist abuse at the tournament. The American player has confirmed that she will take part in the 2015 BNP Paribas Open.
"It's been difficult to forget spending hours crying in the Indian Wells locker room," the world number one, now aged 33, said. Last week Serena Williams won her first Grand Slam title of the year after beating Maria Sharapova in the Australian Open final. That is her 19th Grand Slam title.
Despite the boycott she has managed to win two titles at Indian Wells, the last one in 2001. Back then she defeated Belgian player Kim Clijsters but the match is remembered mostly because the incidents involving some fans who heckled both her and her family. Apparently the fans' behaviour was related to sister Venus withdrawing from the semi final against Serena.
Williams confirmed her entry in next month's tournament in an interview with Times magazine (link: http://time.com/). "I'm fortunate to be at a point in my career where I have nothing to prove. I'm still as driven as ever, but I play for the love of the game," she said. "It is with that love in mind, and a new understanding of the true meaning of forgiveness, that I will proudly return to Indian Wells in 2015."
Serena Williams is 5/2 to win at Wimbledon, the second Grand Slam tournament of the year.
Shumar4life
9 years ago
Serena is one of the best woman players on the world, but I think that she is not such god at her technique because she is so much more powerful then her rivals. She is very dominant in that segment f her play, and it would be interesting to see how she will play on Indian Vels courts. She is practicaly at home, so I believe...
Serena is one of the best woman players on the world, but I think that she is not such god at her technique because she is so much more powerful then her rivals. She is very dominant in that segment f her play, and it would be interesting to see how she will play on Indian Vels courts. She is practicaly at home, so I believe that she could have support o fans, but that is not for sure
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sharpe
9 years ago
I also didn't heard about this case before. Although I'm not the biggest fan of Serena Williams but still this is an unpleasant accident and hopefully everything is in the past now. Both sides were losers from her boycott, the organizers as well as Serena Williams himself.
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Johnajax 9 years ago
I totally understand Serena why she boycott this tournament but if you look closer everyone here were on loss. Tournament was without best player on WTA tour, Serena was without one big tournament and without points which this tournament bring and people in Indian Wells was without maybe best women ever played tennis. Now...
I totally understand Serena why she boycott this tournament but if you look closer everyone here were on loss. Tournament was without best player on WTA tour, Serena was without one big tournament and without points which this tournament bring and people in Indian Wells was without maybe best women ever played tennis. Now I am glad that it is over and I am sure that we will all enjoy watching Serena on this tournament :)
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seculla
9 years ago
I've never heard about this before. I can't believe that this things are happening in 21st century. I've never asked myself why Serena didn't take part of Indian Wells tournament in last years. I also think that the biggest "looser" in this story is this tournament and fans, Serena is the best player in the WTA for so many...
I've never heard about this before. I can't believe that this things are happening in 21st century. I've never asked myself why Serena didn't take part of Indian Wells tournament in last years. I also think that the biggest "looser" in this story is this tournament and fans, Serena is the best player in the WTA for so many years. I wish her luck and I hope that she will win there because that will be the biggest "punishment" for those who did that racist abuse.
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