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Six-time champion falls short in the second round of the year’s first Grand Slam event. Tennis Channel
MELBOURNE — If there’s one great advantage to this digital technology world we live in, it’s that inspiring celebrities are able to use social media to connect in a more personal way with their fans.
Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or Serena Williams’ favorite Reddit — her fiancee, Alexis Ohanian is the co-founder — tennis players are telling of their comings and goings, and opinions, via these tools.
It seems as if these communication resources have always been around but, surprisingly, they are less than 15 years in existence. Facebook will celebrate its 13th birthday next month.
After Williams moved through her second round match against Lucie Safarova 6-3, 6-4 at the Australian Open on Thursday, she spoke about the advantages of being able to speak one’s mind to the whole world. She did so in the context that her next opponent, fellow American Nicole Gibbs, is in particular, very active in talking about important — and controversial — political and social causes via social media.
“I think she (Gibbs) definitely speaks her mind a lot,” Williams said. “I think that’s really awesome. I think having that opportunity and that platform that we have, to be able to say things that we feel and speak up for social issues or things that aren’t right, or things that are right, good things and bad things, I think is really important.”
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Williams believes the reason people — famous and non-famous alike — are engaged with social media is the relative ease of using the different available platforms.
“Now you just open up your phone and you can say something or you can post something, you can shoot a video,” she said. “It can reach so many people and impact so many lives by just taking 10 seconds.”
Earlier in the day, after Caroline Wozniacki moved onto the third round via a 6-1, 6-3 win over Donna Vekic, she spoke of her own frequent use of social media. While Wozniacki indicated she definitely knows to keep some personal things private, she’s happy to allow fans the access and insight into who she is a person.
“I think it’s great for the fans to be able to keep up with you and see what you’re doing,” Wozniacki said. “I think as a youngster I would have loved to have followed my idols in that way.”
When told that Wozniacki wished she grew up in a more digital savvy world where she could have followed her heroes, Williams was right there alongside her friend in sharing that opinion.
“That would have been really cool,” Williams said. “I would have followed so many amazing people. I mean, every girl on tour would have followed Monica Seles, I think, for sure. I would have followed Steffi (Graf). I would have followed Zina (Garrison). So many people I would have followed. Muhammad Ali, can you imagine?”
And with Martin Luther King Day only taking place a few days ago, Williams imagined what that opportunity could’ve presented.
“Can you imagine?” she said. “I think it would have been so inspiring to see what he would say in 140 characters.”
Alas, time doesn’t go backwards so as much as they would have preferred to grow up in today’s world, Williams and Wozniacki’s childhoods’ will have to remain in the era before social media existed.
But they are free to hope that among their social media fans — Williams has 7.61 million followers and Wozniacki 1.52 million on Twitter — they are having a positive impact on someone’s life.
[“source-ndtv”]