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Tennis Great Serena Williams Offers Advice to Caitlin Clark on Blocking Out the Noise

The former pro athlete has dealt with a lot of the same negativity that she sees the WNBA rookie contending with.

Martha Zaytoun

Serena Williams
Serena Williams / Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

If Serena Williams knows one thing, it’s the importance of blocking out negativity. The former professional tennis player was—and still is—beloved, but, like anyone with a public persona, she dealt with a lot of noise during her legendary career.

She touched on that experience on the red carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of her docuseries, In the Arena. “I was bullied,” she said. “Things that I had to go through, now people would be cancelled for saying.”

Williams sees young star basketball player Caitlin Clark dealing with some of the same adversity—and she admires the WNBA rookie for her response thus far. “I just love that she tries to stay grounded, and she says she doesn’t ... look at her social [media],” Williams noted. “I get it. I don’t either.”

When asked, given her own experience with bullying and negativity, what she would encourage Clark to do, the 42-year-old offered simple, but meaningful advice. “I think it’s so important to continue doing what she’s doing,” she said of the 22-year-old athlete. “If people are negative, it’s because they can’t do what you do.”

Williams’s comments came amid a lot of social media commentary around Clark, ranging from accusations of bad blood between the Iowa alumna and other WNBA players to her exclusion from the U.S. basketball roster for the Paris Olympics.

In spite of it all, Clark is continuing to battle it out on the court. On June 16 alone, she put up 23 points, nine assists and eight rebounds to help the Indiana Fever to a 91-83 win over the Chicago Sky. As Williams urged, we hope she continues to just do her thing.

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Martha Zaytoun
MARTHA ZAYTOUN

Martha Zaytoun is a Lifestyle & Trending News writer for SI Swimsuit. Before joining the team, Martha worked on the editorial board of the University of Notre Dame’s student magazine and on the editorial team at Chapel Hill, Durham and Chatham Magazines in North Carolina. When not working, Martha loves to watercolor and oil paint, run or water ski. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a huge Fighting Irish fan.

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