The 15-year-old incident had occurred when Venus withdrew from a semi-final match with Serena, drawing ire from the crowd aimed at the Williams family.
This time, though, Venus was greeted warmly by the crowd before her match and throughout it, a consolation for her poor performance.
"It was enough of a fairytale to come here and play," Venus told reporters. "A win would have been nice, but that means I have to come back, play next year." Serena had no such issues with German opponent Laura Siegemund in a 6-2 6-1 romp. The world number one had already reconciled with the event last year when she ended her own boycott and she appeared freed up as she needed a little over an hour to advance. "My intensity was key. I knew if I didn’t start fast it was going to be a long match," Serena said. In earlier action, third seeded Agnieszka Radwanska prevailed in a three-set thriller against Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 3-6 7-5. She rallied from an early 4-1 deficit to push through. Defending champion Simona Halep made easy work of Vania King 6-1 6-1. Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, the No. 8 seed from the Czech Republic, needed a third-set tiebreaker in a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (5) victory over Danka Kovinic of Montenegro.
(Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
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