Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian has shared a humorous anecdote about offending the 23-time Grand Slam champion by turning down her rare offer of tennis lessons. Ohanian hilariously took pride in being the only person who could boast of refusing Williams’ invitation
Williams and Ohanian, who are married and have two daughters together, began dating in 2015, with Ohanian becoming a regular presence in the former World No. 1 player’s box at tournaments around the world. However, despite developing an interest in the sport, the co-founder of Reddit admitted that he has never picked up a tennis racket himself.
In a recent appearance on the ‘Best of Both Worlds with Flau’jae’ podcast, Alexis Ohanian humorously shared that he had no interest in tennis when he was young because his father dismissed it as a “bullsh*t country club sport.”
When asked if he had ever played against Serena Williams, the 41-year-old was quick to say that he wasn’t “stupid” enough to face the 23-time Grand Slam champion.
“In tennis? No. I have never picked up a tennis racket in my life. My father, God bless him, when tennis would come on ESPN, would change the channel because he’d be like, ‘It’s a bullsh*t country club sport,'” he said.
“Obviously got smart real quick once I started dating my now wife and I have tremendous respect for tennis. Tennis is a great, great sport. I never picked up a racket but I’m not stupid,” he added.
Ohanian also opened up about offending Williams by declining her offer to give him a tennis lesson, joking that he wanted to keep the “ultimate flex” of being the only person to turn down a lesson from the former World No. 1 if their relationship didn’t work out.
“She invited me for a lesson, ‘You know what, I never do this, but I’d be happy to give you a few pointers.’ I said, ‘Absolutely not,’ and she was actually kind of offended because she’s like, ‘Do you know who I am?’ I told you, I don’t just do this for people,'” Ohanian said.
“I thought, if this doesn’t work out, for the rest of my life, I can be the only person on the planet who said they’d turned down Serena Williams for a tennis lesson. That’s the move. That’s the ultimate flex,” he added.
Alexis Ohanian playfully reacted to a clip of the interaction on social media, posting:
“Playing for the long-term!”
Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian: “I didn’t watch tennis until I started dating my wife, It was very much a football, NFL household”
In a recent episode of his podcast ‘Business Dad,’ Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian admitted that he didn’t start watching tennis until he began dating the 23-time Grand Slam champion, disclosing that he previously believed that the NFL was the only sport worth following.
However, Ohanian shared that he came to find that tennis was the “most pure” sport once he began following it in earnest.
“I didn’t watch tennis until I started dating my wife (Serena Williams). It was very much a football, NFL household. The NFL was it, and I thought that was the only sport that mattered,” Ohanian said.
“And then when I came to watch tennis, of the big sports, it is the most pure. What people wanna see is two people being the best, and a winner and a loser, and a feeling as objective as humanly possible,” he added.
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian’s older daughter Olympia has also developed an interest in tennis, with the former World No. 1 asserting that the six-year-old’s athleticism is “not even humanly possible.”
