Serena Pledges Return to Indian Wells as Comeback is Derailed by Injury

Serena Williams promised to return to the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells Friday night, after withdrawing from the tennis tournament with a right knee injury.

“Four months ago I decided to start this journey and come back here in a place I’ve had so much success,” Williams told the fans. “ I can only promise to come back here next year and play right here on this court in front of you guys. It will be my pleasure.”

Williams first injured her knee two days ago, but continued to battle through the injury winning matches on her way to the semifinals.

“Today I was struggling just to even walk. It was really sad,” Williams said.

Serena’s coach Patrick Mouratoglou told the media the pain became “really, really worse” at practice on Thursday. Mouratoglou added that the World No. 1 could barely move her knee earlier in the day.

Williams had an injection in her to knee to try to help mitigate the pain to play, but even that did not work.

“I waited about half an hour and I was ‐‐ because it takes about a half hour to set in. I just wasn’t getting any better,” Williams said about her withdraw from the tournament.

Williams ended a 14 year boycott this year at Indian Wells that that began after she won the 2001 title and was booed heavily by the crowd throughout the match.

The injury could cause Williams to miss the next WTA event in Miami.

“If I’m still in pain, obviously I’m not going to play, but I still am hopeful, as I am defending champion there,” Williams said.