Serena Williams aces hosting gig at 2024 ESPYs

Serena Williams aced her hosting gig at the 2024 ESPY Awards on Thursday night in Hollywood.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion was just the fourth woman in the history of the sports awards show, which honors standout performances by athletes and teams in the last calendar year, to take the microphone as host — and she delivered.

From singing to Maria Sharapova and roasting her fellow sports stars, here’s a collection of some of Williams’ top moments.

The jokes were on point

Like any good host, Serena was ready to roast. Some of her targets throughout the night including Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, Caitlin Clark, LeBron James, Shohei Ohtani, Russell Wilson and Harrison Butker.

She delivered some of her best one-liners in her opening monologue. Just watch.

But athletes weren’t her only targets. Williams also teased Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, whom she’s good friends with, and offered her own pop-culture commentary on the beef between rappers and Kendrick Lamar.

Prince Harry was present at the ceremony as he was honored with the Pat Tillman Award for Service in honor of his work with the Invictus Games. He founded the competition in 2014 to celebrate the athletic achievements of wounded, sick or injured veterans of war.

“Harry and Meghan, try not to breathe too much tonight,” Williams joked. “Because this is my night and I don’t want to be overshadowed by accusations you guys are taking up too much oxygen.”

Sister, sister: Venus Williams stole the show (jokingly)

Serena Williams wasn’t the only tennis player in the house on Thursday night at the Dolby Theater. 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard attended, as did Venus Williams — and Serena’s big sister had a scene-stealing moment when she took the stage.

“ESPN actually asked me to host this year, but, you know, I said no,” she joked. “I was going to let my little sister go ahead and host instead. She needed the victory. It was the same thing I did back at Wimbledon all those times.”

The seven-time Grand Slam singles champion also teamed up with some other famous sporting siblings — Eli Manning, Seth Curry and Jason Kelce — to roast her sister ahead of the show.

The ‘fits were, of course, iconic

Serena Williams was joined on the red carpet by her husband Alexis Ohanian, and their 6-year-old daughter, Olympia. She arrived for the show wearing a custom black gown by Giorgio Armani Privé, with gold Swarovski crystals embroidered on the bodice and train.

Williams late arrived on stage with an elaborate tribute to some of her most famous on-court outfits, and she also changed her outfit multiple times over the course of the evening.

She couldn’t resist making a joke at her own expense about the latter.

“Any opportunity to wear 16 outfits in three hours, I’m going to take it,” she said.

Maria Sharapova made an appearance in spirit

Last week at Wimbledon, Maria Sharapova said she and Serena Williams get “a good laugh” these days when they look back on their heated head-to-head as players. Williams returned the serve in Hollywood by invoking Sharapova, whom she called a “very special person in her life,” in a humorous musical number titled, “She Could Be My Tennis Ball.”

It was a self-dubbed “remix” of the song that rapper Jamie Foxx famous serenaded Serena with at the 2003 ESPYs.

Coco Gauff, nominated for the category of Best Athlete, Women’s Sports, lost out to WNBA player A’ja Wilson, but she edged Iga Swiatek, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic to win the Best Tennis Player award. Sloane Stephens’ eponymous charity foundation was also a finalist for the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award, but did not win.