The tennis champion also addressed her reason for returning to the Indian Wells tournament 15 years after a bitter controversy.
Venus Williams wrote a poignant essay about her return to the Indian Wells tournament 15 years after she and her sister Serena were verbally harassed by spectators.
Kin Cheung / AP
In an essay for The Players' Tribune, Venus wrote about how Serena inspired her to return to Indian Wells in California after their bitter experience in 2001.
Venus recalled the accusations hurled against them and their father after she pulled out of a semi-final match against Serena, citing a knee injury.
Their father, Richard Williams, was accused of orchestrating Venus's withdrawal from the match to let Serena win, which he refuted. He said his family was also subjected to boos, threats, and racial slurs from the crowd, including people who called him the N word.
"I think Indian Wells disgraced America," he told reporters at the time.
Venus wrote about how she never felt welcome at Indian Wells after the tournament.
I remember the pain of my knee injury, and how badly I wanted to play in the semis against Serena — before finally accepting that I wouldn't be able to. I remember the accusations toward me and my sister and our father.
I remember the crowd's reaction, as I walked to my seat, during Serena's match in the final. And I remember how I couldn't understand why thousands of people would be acting this way — to a 19-year-old and a 20-year-old, trying their best.
She also wrote about what it was like being the older sister in the family and the fame and responsibilities that come with it.
Matt Rourke / AP
"Being the big sister meant that, when I became world No. 1 in 2002, I wasn't just world No. 1. I was also the first black American woman to reach No. 1. And it meant that I had to carry with me the importance of what I had accomplished. And I was honored to do that.
Being the big sister meant that, when my little sister made her professional debut, I became a lot of new things to her — her colleague, her competitor, her business partner, her doubles partner. But I was still, first and foremost, the one thing I had always been: her family. I was her protector — her first line of defense against outside forces. And I cherished that."
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