Aryna Sabalenka’s Fitness Coach Channels Alexis Ohanian’s Bullish Influence at US Open as He Sparks Support for Women’s Sports
Serena Williams‘ husband, Alexis Ohanian has always been very vocal about supporting women in sports. He is often seen speaking for equality in the world of sports. Ohanian has also heavily invested in Angel City FC and ATHLOS NYC to motivate the next-gen female athletes towards the sports. Recently, Aryna Sabalenka’s fitness coach Jason Stacy was spotted donning a yellow T-shirt with Alexis Ohanian’s famous caption, “Everyone watches women’s sports“. Echoing the same message?
In May this year, Ohanian posted a clip of renowned soccer star Alexia Putellas and captioned that post with “Everyone watches women’s sports.” Then, in the same month, he shared a clip of Caitlin Clark on his X handle with the same caption. So, that’s how it started, and we can now strongly conclude that both of them have joined hands to become strong advocates for women’s sports.
Ohanian’s journey from tech entrepreneurship to becoming an advocate for women’s sports highlights his visionary mindset and dedication to creating more opportunities for rising stars in women’s sports. It is quite interesting to see Sabalenka’s coach channeling the same message during her SF match at the US Open, and fans are happy to see Aryna Sabalenka‘s team taking this stand.
Previously we heard Sabalenka say, “I’m not someone who watches too much tennis. I prefer to watch men’s tennis rather than women’s tennis. I feel like there is more logic, and it’s more interesting to watch.” The Belarusian tennis star raised quite a few eyebrows at that time with her comments on women’s tennis. Later on, she was even forced to come up with an explanation saying, “I didn’t mean to disparage women’s tennis.”
Sabalenka has moved into the finals of the US Open yet again! Last time she was defeated by Coco Gauff in the finals and this time she will face yet another American, Jessica Pegula. We saw a massive jump in the viewership numbers in last year’s US Open women’s singles final. Are we going to expect a similar thing this year as well? Well, we’ll have to wait a bit to get this answer, but this shows us how sports lovers are getting more interested in women’s sports nowadays.
Coco Gauff’s title triumph against Aryna Sabalenka in the 2023 US Open broke all the records
The rise of women’s sports can be attributed to the emergence of female athletes as role models, brand ambassadors, and social media influencers. According to a report published by Mintel, women sports fans in America are interestingly more passionate than general sports fans. Women’s s[ports are expected to become ever bigger with time. As per a report published by Deloitte, in 2024 for the first time, women’s elite sports will generate a revenue that surpasses $1 Billion (a 300% increase on the industry’s evaluation in 2021).
Now, we know viewership plays a crucial role in generating revenues in the sports world. Talking about viewership, well players like Coco Gauff, Caitlin Clark, and several other rising stars have played an enormous role in contributing to these numbers. For example, last year’s Coco Gauff’s match against Aryna Sabalenka drew 3.4 million viewers while according to Nielsen’s report, the men’s singles final could only draw 2.3 million viewers. It was in fact the most-viewer woman’s final of any tennis major event that has been ever broadcasted by ESPN. A straight jump of 92% from the 2022 US Open finals.
Not only that, it was also the third-most watched program across all of cable but the men’s final match was placed at the ninth spot in that statistics. This shows us the rapid rise in women’s support. These tiny bits of messages from Alexis Ohanian in the past and Aryna Sabalenka’s team in the SF of the 2024 US Open may do more wonders in the final this year. Share your thoughts on this.
