Serena Set to Make Indian Wells Return Tonight

For the first time since she sat crying in the locker room after defeating Kim Clijsters in a three-set match to win the Indian Wells Masters in 2001, world number one Serena Williams will return to the site she has boycotted for the last 14 years.

“There are some who say I should never go back. There are others who say I should’ve returned years ago,” Serena wrote in her TIME article back in February. “I understand both perspectives very well and wrestled with them for a long time. I’m just following my heart on this one.”

Fourteen years ago, Serena was just a 19-year-old teenager who was set to face her older sister Venus in the semifinals of one of the most popular tournaments on the tour. An injury forced Venus to withdraw from that match, fueling rumors of match-fixing.

It didn’t help that Russian Elena Dementieva said that Richard Williams, the two sisters’ father, would “decide” the outcome of the match following her quarterfinal loss to Venus.

Venus and Richard Williams were booed by fans as they approached their seats for the final between Serena and Clijsters, and heard racial remarks and slurs from fans, according to the eldest Williams.

So despite growing up a little more than 100 miles away from Indian Wells, Serena had no home-court advantage against the Belgian Clijsters.

“One guy said, ‘I wish it was ’75, we’d skin you alive,’” Richard Williams told USA Today at the time. “I had trouble holding back years. I think Indian Wells disgraced America.”

While Serena came out on top in the match, it was her who was in the locker room in tears for hours afterwards.

“It has been difficult for me to forget spending hours crying in the Indian Wells locker room after winning in 2001, driving back to Los Angeles feeling as if I had lost the biggest game ever—not a mere tennis game but a bigger fight for equality,” Serena said in her TIME piece. “Emotionally it seemed easier to stay away.”

And so she did. For 14 years, arguably the greatest player of all-time, despite threats of sanctions and point penalties, stayed away from the tournament.

But she will make her return tonight when she takes on Romania’s Monica Niculescu in a second-round matchup.

“I was raised by my mom to love and forgive freely,” she said as she quoted a psalm. “I have faith that fans at Indian Wells have grown with the game and know me better than they did in 2001. Indian Wells was a pivotal moment of my story, and I am a part of the tournament’s story as well. Together, we have a chance to write a different ending.”