Serena Williams recently lauded WNBA star Caitlin Clark for her maturity and the way she distracted herself from the social media noise. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion recently entered the WNBA circuit by buying a stake in the team Toronto Tempo.
Williams recently spoke to TIME magazine about a variety of topics, and her buying a stake in the WNBA team Toronto Tempo came up. She then lauded Caitlin Clark for being herself and “muting” the outside noise.
“I felt like she’s always herself, she stayed out of it, just muted the noise. She has this maturity that I didn’t have. I felt like she was, like me, purposely staying away,” says Williams. “I respect that. Kudos to her,” the 43-year-old said.
Clark has established herself as one of the most popular figures in basketball through her exploits with the Iowa Hawkeyes and now, the Indiana Fever.
Serena Williams’ Investments in Women’s Sports
Serena Williams has invested in various businesses over the years, and women’s sports is one of them. The former World No. 1 was a part of the ownership group that led to the foundation of the NWSL soccer club Angel City FC.
Williams’ most recent endeavor in women’s sports was buying a stake in Toronto Tempo, which will be founded in the following year. Speaking about this, the 43-year-old told TIME that despite the growing significance of AI, the sports industry would not be affected.
“With AI coming in, it’s going to affect so many different industries. But the one thing it’s not going to affect is sports. They’re the last real thing that you can see and hold and feel.”
Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian, has also invested heavily in women’s sports, being among the owners of Angel City FC. He also founded Athlos, a women’s-only track event, the inaugural edition of which took place in 2024 and had some top athletes, including Gabby Thomas and Masai Russell, both of whom were among the gold medalists at the Paris Olympics. Its second edition will take place this October.
Ohanian also made a sizeable donation to the University of Virginia’s women’s basketball team, which the institution said was the largest in the history of women’s basketball programs.
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian got married in November 2017, two months after the birth of their first daughter, Olympia. Their second daughter, Adira, was born in August 2023, less than 12 months after Williams’ retirement from tennis.
