Venus & Serena Don't Deny Fixing Indian Wells Game On 'Red Table Talk'

The Williams sisters, Venus & Serena, appeared alongside Will Smith on Smith's famous Facebook show The Red Table Talk. The sisters got really emotional talking about their lives with the man who plays their father in the upcoming King Richard film. There were plenty of topics discussed by the trio who got some help from more Williams family members and other celebs and sports figures who joined in throughout the show. An important talking point in the show was the infamous Indian Wells match that never was between the two sisters. Both of them shared how emotional they got after the tournament. They never did mention though, what really took place behind the scenes. It doesn't make a lot of sense that Serena would cry her eyes out just because people booed her even though she won the tournament.

What we know happened was that Venus & Serena were set to square off in the semi-finals of the tournament. The two ladies were 20 & 19 years old respectively and were literally tearing up the tennis world by that point. Minutes before the highly anticipated match though, Venus announced that she was not going to go out on the court and face her sister. Citing that she was dealing with a knee injury. Naturally, the decision was met with plenty of skepticism from fans. At the time the Williams camp denied any type of wrongdoing. Ultimately Serena would go on to win the tournament. However, neither of the sisters returned to the Indian Wells tournament for 14 years!

Venus & Serena told Will Smith that both of them still had a bitter taste in their mouth when remembering what went down in 2001. Without either of them directly denying that the match between the two was fixed. Serena mentioned,

“I’ll never forget driving back, and [sister] Yetunde was there, and I remember just getting in the car and I was just bawling. I was at the gas station, there was no celebration, and I was just crying and crying and crying.”

Apart from sharing details about what took place after the final match in the tournament Serena also talked about her emotional journey throughout the match. She mentioned that she was very disturbed by the way that the fans booed Venus when she took her seat in the stands to watch her sister in the finals. Looking back at the footage Venus' knee didn't look too banged up. She could've done a better job selling the injury. Although she was kind of limping around in the stands.

Later in the interview, Venus & Serena talk about the different ways that they deal with criticism. Highlighting Venus' recent words about not caring what critics say because most of them can't play as well as she can. If that's their position on critics, why was winning that tournament so emotional after a couple of boos? If you put two and two together it would seem like "King Richard" pulled a fast one and helped Serena win at Indian Wells in 2001!