Organizers of the BNP Paribas Open have confirmed that Venus Williams will not be playing in this year’s tournament despite a press release stating less than a week ago that she had been given a wild card.
On Thursday, the former world No.1 was among a group of players named to be playing in the WTA 1000 event along with two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who is returning to the Tour this week following the birth of her first child. Williams, who is currently ranked 974th in the world, hasn’t played a Tour event since last year’s Miami Open. The last tournament she entered without the use of a wildcard was back in 2021 at the Chicago Open.
In an unexpected twist, Williams revealed that she will not be playing in Indian Wells during a speaking event in Denmark on Sunday called ‘An Evening with Venus Williams.’ During one part of the session, the topic of Indian Wells came up which was when she contradicted what the tournament had previously said.
“I found the announcement super amusing because, I don’t know, people seem to be happy, so I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll just go with it, I don’t know’,” Williams said.
“I’m actually not going. I’m going to be overseas.”
The comments from Williams circled Social media for a few hours before there was official confirmation from Indian Wells that she wouldn’t be playing via a statement issued by tournament director Tommy Haas. No explanation has been given about what (if any) communication was made with Williams before publically announcing she would receive a wildcard.
“Our team has been informed that Venus is not accepting the wild card this year,” the statement read. “We wish Venus all the best and hope to see her back in Indian Wells in the future.”
Williams first played at Indian Wells in 1996 and is a three-time semi-finalist. However, she boycotted the event for 15 years (2001-2016) amid claims of racism against her and members of her family. During the 2001 tournament, Venus was scheduled to play her sister Serena in the semi-finals but withdrew due to tendinitis. She was accused by some of deliberately retiring from the match under the instructions of her father which was an accusation that was never proven true.
Those accusations were fuelled by comments made by Russia’s Elena Dementieva a day before their semifinal clash.
“I mean, I don’t know what Richard thinks about it. I think he will decide who’s going to win tomorrow”. The former world No.3 said.
In the final, Serena played Belgium’s Kim Clijsters in what turned out to be a bombardment of booing and heckling from the crowd against her. The Williams camp complained that racist slurs were shouted and the crowd cheered when Williams made an unforced error.
Since ending her boycott, Williams has played in five out of the last eight editions.
