serena williams emerged triumphant on an emotional return to indian wells on friday, beating monica niculescu in straight sets at the bnp paribas open the world no 1 has not played at the tournament in the californian desert, one of the biggest on the wta tour, since winning the title as a 19 year old in 2001 she was afforded a standing ovation as she walked out onto centre court, and the occasion seemed to affect her in the early stages as she found herself trailing 2 0 serena williams celebrates after beating monica niculescu at the atp & wta bnp paribas open  williams went through a range of emotions on her return to indian wells following a 14 year boycott  tennis fans gave williams a standing ovation as she made her entrance to the court  the 33 year old american waves to the crowd as she is given a standing ovation  but the 33 year old american soon got into her rhythm and ground out a gutsy 7 5, 7 5 triumph in two hours four minutes williams had thought about returning last year only to change her mind she was jeered during her final victory over kim clijsters 14 years ago by a crowd unhappy that venus williams had pulled out of a scheduled semi final against her sister the previous day at the last minute critics believed matches between the siblings were fixed and venus and the women's father and coach richard claimed they were subjected to racist taunts in the stands williams played in front of a packed house it was her first match at the arena since 2001  williams had thought about returning last year only to change her mind  elsewhere in the women's second round on friday, romania's simona halep battled from a set down to defeat russia's daria gavrilova   and dedicated the victory to her cousin, following his recent death 'it's really tough to speak about this situation,' she said after her 2 6, 6 1, 6 2 win 'it's a painful situation for everyone, for me and for my family 'i just wanted to play this tournament because he loved tennis he played tennis for many years so i decided to stay here, because it was a little bit easier to pass this situation 'i just want to dedicate this match to him, because he loved tennis and he was very talented'
serena williams monica niculescu the world no 1 indian wells 2001 that year american
serena williams overcame monica niculescu to win in straight sets  the world no 1 has not played at indian wells since 2001  she was jeered by fans and allegedly subjected to racist abuse that year  but american was given standing ovation as she made emotional return 