When Serena Williams took to the tennis court for a match against Maria Sharapova, she did so with the intention of proving that she is still one of the best athletes in the world. The 37-year-old star achieved this feat by defeating her Russian foe in less than an hour. This brought her winning streak to 19 and served as further evidence that Williams is an all-time great in the sport.
Interestingly enough, it was actually Williams’ husband that drew more attention during the match due to his choice of clothing. Alexis Ohanian, the co-creator of Reddit, was in attendance to see his wife achieve victory.
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When he stood up to applaud the victory, many noticed that he was wearing a shirt that said “D.A.R.E.” This stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education and was instantly viewed as a reference to Sharapova’s history.
the second drag of the serena-sharapova match happened off the court, with @alexisohanian in a d.a.r.e shirt. 😩 if you know, you know. #USOpen pic.twitter.com/CbnVXUtdeF
— get on the drums, ro (@oscar_pope) August 27, 2019
In 2016, Sharapova tested positive for a banned substance (meldonium) and was ousted from tennis for two years. She later had the ban reduced to 15 months after claiming that the drug was for medical purposes and that she was unaware that it was on the restricted list. The International Tennis Federation actually wanted the ban to be four years, but there was no evidence that Sharapova intentionally cheated.
“The ITF tribunal unanimously concluded that what I did was not intentional,” Sharapova said at the time, per CNN. “The tribunal found that I did not seek treatment from my doctor for the purpose of obtaining a performance-enhancing substance. The ITF spent tremendous amounts of time and resources trying to prove I intentionally violated the anti-doping rules and the tribunal concluded I did not.”
Whether or not Sharapova intentionally used the banned substance is irrelevant at this point considering that she is back in the sport after serving out the ban. However, it does not appear that she will be forgetting this incident anytime soon, especially with Ohanian creating waves on social media with his shirt choice.
Did he purposely wear a shirt that was made popular in the mid-1990s in order to troll Sharapova, or was this purely a coincidence? The answer won’t be provided anytime soon, barring Ohanian making a statement on social media or to reporters. For now, his fashion statement will only be met with speculation.
