Serena Williams fought back tears when she was greeted with a standing ovation Friday night during her return to Indian Wells, where 14 years earlier she was roundly booed and allegedly showered with racial slurs as a 19-year-old.
She responded with a victory. The world's top-ranked women's player dispatched No. 68 Monica Niculescu of Romania in the second round, 7-5, 7-5.
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"I'm glad I was able to do this. It definitely feels like one of the biggest and one of the proudest moments of my career," Williams told reporters, according to The Associated Press.
Williams had not played at the California venue since March 14, 2001, when she defeated Kim Clijsters in the final. Her victory came two days after her sister, Venus Williams, withdrew from a semifinal match 20 minutes before she was scheduled to face Serena.
The situation ignited accusations that their father, Richard, was fixing the sisters' matches. Serena and Richard exited the court after winning the tournament that day amid boos and, they said, racist epithets in one of the more hostile scenes in tennis history.
Williams vowed never to come back to Indian Wells. Last month she said in a Time magazine interview that she would return.
She was overcome by emotion before the match began.
As Williams took the court, she removed her headphones and listened while she was announced to the crowd, which cheered and rose to its feet. She raised her right hand to acknowledge the cheers and could be seen crying as she unpacked her bag on the bench.
"(U)p until that moment I didn't really know if it was the right thing for me to do. I feel like that's when I felt it was the right thing," she told reporters. "And receiving the love from the crowd here, it really meant a lot to me."
After rallying to win in straight sets (she trailed 5-3 in the first), she pumped her fist and exiting the court, this time to another round of applause.
"I feel like I've already won this tournament. I don't feel like I have to actually hold the trophy at the end of this," Williams told reporters. "I feel like I'm already holding up a trophy. I have never felt that way before. Just being here is a huge win. Not only for me, but for so many people. It's a wonderful feeling."
Nike took out a full-page ad in Friday's Los Angeles Times that ran on the back page of the sports section. The ad showed Williams' hand tossing a ball into the air and these words from her: "At age 19 I was dealt the hardest serve of my career. A serve that I didn't know how to handle. One that I thought time would take care of. That 18 major titles could easily put away. I've finally figured out there is no way I can return that serve if I'm not facing it."
