Fourteen years after the Williams sisters were slated to play in the semifinals, Serena Williams will return to the Indian Wells Masters tournament. In 2001, tennis icon Serena Williams was 19, and slated to play her sister in a singles match at the Indian Wells Tournament, a non-slam competition in California. Both ranked among the top ten female players worldwide, Venus and Serena had long combated rumors of fixed matches; Elena Dementieva, who had lost to Venus in the quarterfinals at Indian Wells, commented the day before that she thought that “he (Richard, the Williams’ father and manager) will decide who’s going to win tomorrow.” Similar allegations hounded the sisters, from speculation surrounding Venus’s win over Serena at the 2000 Wimbledon semifinal to doubt regarding Serena’s loss at the 1999 Lipton International Players Championships.

Forty minutes before the match, Venus pulled out, unable to compete due to tendonitis. Kim Clijsters played in the finals instead. Serena won handily, defeating Clijsters 4-6, 6-4, and 6-2. Venus and Richard Williams watched from the stands, horrified as the crowd loudly booed Serena for the majority of the match. “As I walked out onto the court, the crowd immediately started jeering and booing,” writes Serena Williams, a jumble that allegedly included various racial slurs. Mr. Williams describes the event further in his 2014 memoir Black and White: The Way I See It, reflecting that “it was a snapshot from the days when the open humiliation of the black race was accepted without question.” Women’s Tennis Association Tour CEO Bart McGuire denies the claims, citing a lack of evidence and the fact that neither Clijsters nor S. Williams heard the epithets.

The Williams sisters have publicly boycotted the tournament since the incident until this year. Serena Williams did not return in 2002, and she had not promoted Indian Wells after her win. Serena Williams, a giant in a sport associated with the white and affluent, notes that “the undercurrent of racism was painful, confusing and unfair.” Now 33 years old, at the gloaming of a long, decorated career, Serena will play Indian Wells this March, a champion returning to defend her title.

Sources

http://time.com/3694659/serena-williams-indian-wells/

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/columns/story?id=3952939