Serena Williams this morning announced she will play in next month's BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., for the first time in 14 years. Williams in a first-person account for TIME.com outlines the reasons why she has not played the event since '01. She was scheduled to face sister Venus in a semifinal match, but Venus withdrew at the last minute due to injury. Serena writes, "Nothing could have prepared me for what happened in the final. As I walked out onto the court, the crowd immediately started jeering and booing. ... The false allegations that our matches were fixed hurt, cut and ripped into us deeply. The undercurrent of racism was painful, confusing and unfair." Williams notes while she has "thought about going back to Indian Wells many times over my career," she added, "I said a few times that I would never play there again. And believe me, I meant it." But Williams writes, "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 the ride is a little easier. I play for the love of the game. And 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" (TIME.com, 2/4).
BIG BOOST FOR TOURNEY: SI.com's Courtney Nguyen writes Williams' decision to play Indian Wells "marks a seismic shift in the tennis landscape" and is a "huge boon to the tournament and the WTA." The event has made "massive strides over the last four years in overtaking the Sony Open in Miami as the best tour-level tournament in North America." Nguyen: "But how can you be the best tournament when you can't even offer the best field?" Williams' return also has a "charity arm," as she is offering "numerous meet and greet opportunities in exchange for donations to the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization that provides free legal representation to mistreated prisoners" (SI.com, 2/4). SI's Jon Wertheim tweets, "Big news for Indian Wells - can't imagine Serena welcome will be anything other than warm." The N.Y. Times' Ben Rothenberg: "Serena had been on the entry list for Indian Wells last year, but pulled out. No sign yet that Venus could be returning as well" (TWITTER.com, 2/4).
