Alexis Ohanian Reveals How Serena Williams Changed His Life by Introducing Him to the ‘Pure’ and ‘Magical’ Aspect of Sports

Serena Williams‘ husband, Alexis Ohanian, is known to be an avid sports lover! However, do you know he didn’t watch tennis until he started dating the tennis superstar? It all started in 2015 when they met each other for the first time. Serena Williams was reportedly the first to take the step forward and asked Ohanian to sit with her and her friends during a breakfast in Rome. It was followed up by an invitation to watch one of her matches in the 2015 Roland Garros for someone who had never seen a tennis match!

Ohanian was apparently more inclined towards the NFL, but now the Reddit co-founder is happy that his wife introduced him to one of the most “pure” and “magical” forms of sport. During an interview with Vanity Fair, he revealed he has “never watched a match on television or in real life” and also added, “I really had no respect for tennis.” One would assume marrying one of the best players the sport’s history as ever seen would change that perspective!

After marrying the GOAT, Ohanian’s perspectives towards the sport have completely changed. Reflecting more on that during a recent chat with NBA legend, Shane Battier, Ohanian said, “I didn’t watch tennis until I started dating my wife. It was very much a football-like NFL household. NFL was it and I thought that was the only sport that mattered.“

He further added, “Then I came to watch tennis. It’s one of the big sports, it’s the most pure what people wanna see is two people being the best and a winner and a loser. And it feeling as objective as humanly possible.“

The 41-year-old American internet entrepreneur and investor then went on to make a comparison of tennis with other sports. He strongly believes tennis is at its “purest when they’re not cheating and they have Hawk-Eye.” Ohanian believes there is “something magical” about this racquet sport!

Do you know Serena Williams’ husband once shocked his fans when he admitted that tennis wasn’t a real sport? Once talking about the video game, Sega Tennis he revealed, “Collectibles from our childhood (even though I never played this game as a kid – lol – because I hated tennis) are the best.” Surprisingly, while replying to a tweet relating to tennis video games, he wrote, “Only played Mario Tennis a few times at our LAN parties. Tennis wasn’t a real sport as far as I was concerned back then.” That’s gutsy, isn’t it? Hope it didn’t come to his wife’s notice!

Alexis Ohanian turning down Serena Williams’ tennis offer

Alexis Ohanian may be one of the biggest supporters of Serena Williams, but he once refused Serena Williams’ tennis lessons. He was pretty much blind to the racquet sport in his early days of dating and revealed that he used to change the channel whenever he saw there was a tennis match running on the television. However, the reason for rejecting his wife’s tennis lesson offer was quite epic!

In an interview, he admitted, “She’s actually offered to give me lessons. I turned them down. Because I want to be the only person in the world who would ever turn down Serena Williams for tennis lessons. Because I know there was no benefit to her seeing me be that bad.“

And now, perhaps he has put tennis into his investment plans too! He recently also wondered what he would do if he could take over the WTA. Do you want Alexis Ohanian to make a hefty investment in women’s tennis?