INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- Serena Williams is returning to tournament play for the first time since the birth of her first child.
Williams will first be back for competitive tennis at the Fed Cup in February, when she'll play for the United States as it opens defense of its Fed Cup crown against the Netherlands in Asheville, North Carolina, on Feb. 10-11.
And she was among the entries released Wednesday for the BNP Paribas Open, which runs March 5-18 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. It will be the two-time champion's first tournament after 14 months off. Her daughter was born in September.
Williams reached the semifinals in 2015 at Indian Wells and the finals in 2016, after returning to the event that she had boycotted for years.
Top-ranked Simona Halep, defending champion Elena Vesnina and former winners Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki also are set to play in the BNP Paribas Open. Also entered is Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza, U.S. Open winner Sloane Stephens, Karolina Pliskova and Americans Madison Keys and CoCo Vandeweghe.
On the men's side, defending champion Roger Federer will be seeking his sixth tournament title at Indian Wells. He and Novak Djokovic, who also entered, are tied with five titles here. Rafael Nadal, Grigor Dimitrov, Juan Martin del Potro and Stan Wawrinka also are entered.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
