Serena Williams Strikes the Right Note in a Time of Turmoil.
Serena Williams officially ended her 14-year boycott of the annual tennis tournament held here when she addressed members of the news media Thursday to explain why she returned.
“I just felt like it was time,” she said.
At the same time, Williams said there was a time when she felt this day might never come: “I didn’t think I would come back, to be honest.”
In March 2001, Williams, then 19, was booed without mercy as she played a championship match here. Fans were angry that the much-anticipated semifinal between her and her sister Venus never materialized after Venus pulled out with an injury. Their father, Richard Williams, was accused of orchestrating the outcome.
Many say they are not clear about what happened over that weekend, but Richard Williams is very clear about what happened. In his autobiography, which was published last year, Williams described the events in detail.
He wrote about the chorus of boos that greeted the announcement that Venus would not play, and charged that accusations and racial epithets “flew throughout the stadium” when he and Venus arrived two days later to watch Serena play in the final.
“My daughters were treated without an ounce of dignity or respect,” he wrote. “They were treated like criminals.”
When the Williams sisters and their father left the tournament, they vowed never to return. They stood by the vow with steely resolve until February, when Serena Williams revealed, through Time magazine, that she would return to Indian Wells in March to play in the BNP Paribas Open. . .
Without mentioning events in Ferguson, Mo., in Cleveland and on Staten Island, as well as the recent racist rants by members of a fraternity at the University of Oklahoma, Williams said she was convinced that returning and sounding a note of forgiveness were the right things to do, and this was the right time.
“I think a lot of the things that have been happening lately, I think definitely played a part in the whole picture,” she said.
“I thought it was really good timing, not just for me but for Americans in general, to step up and say, ‘We as a people, we as Americans, we can do better, we can be better, we are better.’ ”
When Williams plays her match Friday evening, the fans at Indian Wells should give her an ovation for that thought alone.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
very classy 
