By Erik Gudris | @atntennis | Friday, July 12, 2024
Tennis legend Serena Williams served up fashion, songs, and heat at the 2024 ESPY Awards in Los Angeles. The 23-time major singles champion hosted the awards show that honors accomplishments across all sports including high school, college, and professional.
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The evening kicked off with Pop and R&B star Ciara performing an opening number that featured dancers wearing many of Serena’s iconic tennis outfits over the years.
Serena, not to be outdone, made multiple appearances throughout the evening wearing a variety of outfits and hairstyles. The most memorable moments included Serena, a huge karaoke fan, doing two renditions of the now famous/infamous song “Will You Be My Tennis Ball?” sung back in 2003 by then host Jamie Foxx to a then 22-year-old Serena who was sitting in the audience.
Later, Serena came back on stage to perform another version of the song to her now good friend and former tennis rival Maria Sharapova. Serena acknowledged that the original song probably couldn’t be performed today on live TV.
"We wanted to do another remix of Jamie's beautiful and utterly unacceptable song, Serena said laughing in her intro. I dedicate this one to a very special person in my life... this one goes out to Maria Sharapova.” Williams started the performance, singing: "She could be my tennis ball. She's Russian, blonde and very tall.” Serena then later added, “People say we had a feud, which was presumptuous and kinda rude. Besides that I beat her 20 times."
Serena, in another part of the show, served up some heat during a segment celebrating women athletes. While joined on stage by big sister Venus Williams and television star Quinta Brunson, she called out Kansas City Chiefs Kicker Harrison Butker who recently faced backlash for controversial comments he made about women at a recent commencement ceremony at Benedictine College.
"So, go ahead and enjoy women's sports like you would any other sports, because they are sports," Venus said to the audience, which prompted Serena to say, "Except you, Harrison Butker." She added, "We don't need you." Butker, who was in attendance, was not seen by the viewing audience reacting, as the cameras did not show him.
One current tennis player not in attendance who was watching the show was reigning US Open champion Coco Gauff.
Gauff won an award herself on the night for Best Tennis Player over Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, and Iga Swiatek.
Photo Credit: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images