What Everyone Is Getting Wrong About Serena Williams' Return To Indian Wells

What Everyone Is Getting Wrong About Serena Williams' Return To Indian Wells
INDIAN WELLS, CA - MARCH 13: Serena Williams hits a forehand in her match against Monica Niculescu of Romania during the BNP Parisbas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 13, 2015 in Indian Wells, California. Williams has not played at the BNP Parisbas for 14 years. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
INDIAN WELLS, CA - MARCH 13: Serena Williams hits a forehand in her match against Monica Niculescu of Romania during the BNP Parisbas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 13, 2015 in Indian Wells, California. Williams has not played at the BNP Parisbas for 14 years. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

The reality of tennis as a sport predominately owned, played and watched by white people has rarely been as conspicuous as an episode 14 years ago featuring one of its greatest ever players at one of its most prestigious venues. And with Serena Williams’s return to Indian Wells this week – after boycotting the tournament due to a harrowing affair that saw a stadium full of mostly white fans jeer her and her family throughout a championship match – the tennis community is tasked again with confronting how it has dealt with that moment, and with the world No 1’s unexpected return to where it all took place.

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