“The men just finally noticed that women have been amazing for 50 years, 60 years,” Serena Williams recently said while participating in a panel discussion dubbed ‘The Changing Face of Sport and its Impact on the NFL’ at the Palm Beach, Florida. Alongside Serena, the WNBA star Caitlin Clark and the two-time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning were also part of the panel. Serena, herself a pioneer of women’s sports, has been a big admirer of Clark. Last year, she stated that Clark’s transcendent season for the University of Iowa, which helped the women’s tournament outdraw the men’s in championship viewership, was just the latest addition to the snowballing “moment” that women’s sport across the globe is currently experiencing. And wasn’t she spot on? But hey, what does Clark think about the 23-time GS champion?

Previously, in an interview, Serena was asked what advice she would want to give to Clark. And in response, the tennis star said she was “bullied” early on in her career, and hence, she could empathize with the pressure Clark is facing from critics during her rookie season. She then heaped praise on the Indiana Fever star by saying, “I love that she tries to stay grounded. She says she doesn’t look at her social (media). I get it. I don’t either. I think it’s so important to just continue to do what she’s doing. No matter what other people do. If people are negative, it’s because they can’t do what you do, basically. Hopefully, she’ll continue to do what she’s doing.“

Clark’s love for multiple sports is a well-known thing among the fans and she admires Serena as much as the tennis legend admires her. In an interview at the Mercedes-Benz event during the Masters weekend in Augusta, the Indiana Fever star heaped praise on Serena. In fac, she revealed she looks up to Serena as an inspirational figure.

“I loved Serena Williams. Like, she was probably my favorite athlete of all time. I just, you know, thought she was the greatest thing ever, and then also I was a young girl being able to look up to that. I thought that was incredible,” Clark said.

Serena and Caitlin previously met at the ESPYs in 2024, and even at that time, they had high words of praise for each other. Caitlin Clark’s rapid rise and her pivotal role in taking the WNBA to further heights might have even prompted Serena to acquire an ownership stake in the Toronto Tempo, Canada’s first WNBA team. But it’s not only Serena who is a big fan of Caitlin; even her husband, Alexis Ohanian, has time and again showcased his admiration for Clark.

In one of his old X posts, Ohanian credited Clark for the huge boom in the March Madness viewership for women’s games. He even shared a graph by re-posting another X post from 2022, where he had criticized the NCAA for not giving the women’s games the same treatment as the men’s games. In that post, a fan suggested him to tag the Indiana Fever star and in reply to that fan, Ohanian said, “She’s a HUGE part of it, but the story was in the data years ago — free market of attention (IG) already delivered a verdict showing women crushed the men on followers.“

Once during an interaction, Clark was asked to name her dream dinner guest, and she had named “Serena Williams.” When Ohanian came across that on social media, he extended a heartfelt invitation to the WNBA star. Responding to the video clip on X, he wrote, “C’mon now @CaitlinClark22 there’s an open invitation at our home!”

Even when he met Clark at the NFL Annual Meeting last month, he couldn’t stop himself from expressing his excitemen. “Finally met the one and only @caitlinclark22 IRL (impressive young woman off the court as well),” he wrote.

But did Caitlin Clark ever try her hand at the racket sport?

Caitlin Clark shares her experience of trying Serena Williams’ sport

Other than basketball, Caitlin Clark has a keen interest in multiple other sports like tennis, softball, volleyball, and even soccer. Did you know that she even played for her high school’s soccer team before zoning in on basketball? Talking about her love for multiple sports, she had once even teased her fans about competing in two sports at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

Although she didn’t take part in the Paris Olympics, Clark is expected to be on the US women’s 12-strong roster for LA28. Recently, while sitting beside her idol, Serena Williams, at the NFL’s Annual Meeting, she spoke about her love for football. “I remember going to my brother’s football games, and it was like, ‘Why can’t I play football?’ I would have played it; I would have loved it.”

Williams gave her a nod, saying, “You would have been great at it!” Then Caitlin Clark responded, “I would have played it. I would have loved it. I would have been OK. Maybe LA 2028, maybe I’ll do two sports. Or if basketball doesn’t work out, I’ll head over to flag football.” What about tennis, though? Well, talking about that, Clark once admitted, “I got kicked out of tennis class when I was like 10, so that didn’t last long. I got mad at the instructor because I thought it was too easy.“

Well, Serena can confirm that tennis is definitely as easy as it looks. Maybe she can give Clark some tennis lessons as well now. Do you want to see Serena and Caitlin on the court together for fun and games?