The WNBA announced Thursday that Indiana guard Caitlin Clark is the 2024 Rookie of the Year, giving the Fever back-to-back ROTYs after Aliyah Boston's 2023 win.

Nearly mirroring Boston's unanimous election, Clark garnered 66 of the 67 votes. Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese, whose season was cut short due to a wrist injury, received the remaining first-place vote.

"I am incredibly honored to be named Rookie of the Year, but more than that, I am grateful to everyone that supported me throughout this past season – my family and friends, my teammates, the Fever organization and everyone that cheered us on all season," Clark said in the Fever's statement. "I am so proud of what we accomplished and so excited for what the future holds."

Clark's rookie season is one for the record books

This year has been all gas, no brakes for the 2024 WNBA Draft's overall No. 1 pick. During the regular season, Clark led all rookies in scoring at 19.2 points per game and topped the league with 8.4 assists per game and with 122 total three-pointers.

In July, the 2024 All-Star became the first rookie in WNBA history to ever put up a triple-double. Not satisfied with that, Clark recorded a second one in early September.

She ultimately inked her name into the league's history books with multiple records, including single-season and single-game assists, and single-season rookie scoring.

In the Fever's first .500 season in eight years, Clark helped Indiana to a 20-20 record after a sputtering 1-8 season start. As a result, the Fever made their first postseason run since 2016.

The franchise also smashed viewership and attendance records thanks in large part to Clark's popularity. Indiana home games ultimately drew over 90,000 more fans than the league's previous home attendance season record, set at 250,565 by the Liberty in 2001.

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First-year stars join Clark on WNBA All-Rookie Team

The 2024 All-Rookie Team ​also dropped on Thursday, with Clark, Reese, Kamilla Cardoso, Rickea Jackson, and Leonie Fiebich all getting the nod.

Reese, Clark's biggest ROTY competition before her season-ending injury, claimed records of her own in her abbreviated first campaign. The 2024 All-Star now holds the league's record for consecutive double-doubles, the single-season rebound mark, and boasts the WNBA's highest rebound average in history.

Reese's Chicago teammate, center Cardoso, also put up stunning rookie season numbers, ultimately leading all first-year players with an impressive 52.1% field goal percentage. Meanwhile, forward Jackson made an immediate impact on the Sparks's stat sheet as the team's second leading scorer.

The Liberty's Fiebich is a WNBA rookie, but the 24-year-old German's overseas career already earned her MVP honors in Spain's pro league. Her All-Rookie Team honor is based on Fiebich's regular-season play, but she's still making key contributions in New York's ongoing WNBA postseason run.

Tennis fans saw an epic battle on Monday, as world No. 39 Emma Raducanu forced No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka into a third-set tiebreak in the third round of the 2025 Cincinnati Open.

The British 22-year-old, who burst into the sport's upper echelons by winning the 2021 US Open as an unseeded teenage qualifier, came achingly close to ousting the top-ranked three-time Grand Slam winner in a match that required more than three hours and two tie-breaks to resolve.

"She's world No. 1 for a reason, and I pushed her more than I did at Wimbledon so that's an improvement," said Raducanu, ultimately falling to the 2024 Cincinnati Open winner in Monday's narrow 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (5) loss.

Clearly affected by the oppressive humidity of the southern Ohio summer, Sabalenka took risks in the match's late stages to offset her 72 unforced errors and her diminishing energy.

"At the end, I went for crazy shots," Sabalenka told the crowd following the 2025 US Open tune-up match. "I think that it was a little bit risky from me and it really helped to put a lot of pressure on her."

Along with Sabalenka, this week's Round of 16 will feature at least four other Top-10 contenders, as 2025 Australian Open victor No. 6 Madison Keys and Kazakhstan's No. 10 Elena Rybakina booked their own Round of 32 wins on Monday, while 2025 French Open champion No. 2 Coco Gauff and 2025 Wimbledon winner No. 3 Iga Świątek enjoyed extra rest as their third-round opponents withdrew due to illness and injury on Tuesday.

Hoping to join the Gauff and Keys's advancing US contingent are No. 4 Jessica Pegula and No. 35 Ashlyn Krueger, who will face Poland's No. 40 Magda Linette and Italy's No. 9 Jasmine Paolini, respectively, on Tuesday.

How to watch the Cincinnati Open

Tennis's best will keep battling for Cincy's trophy — and an edge going into the season's final Grand Slam — this week: The third round will wrap on Tuesday before the Round of 16 kicks off on Wednesday.

Live coverage of the 2025 Cincinnati Open will continue airing on the Tennis Channel.

Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark is feeling the pressure, joining retired WNBA legend Sue Bird on last Friday's podcast to discuss the impact of her recent spat of injuries on league attendance and viewership.

"That's definitely been hard," Clark told Bird about having to ride the bench. "I'm going to go to every road game no matter what, whether I'm playing or not. It's hard because obviously I do feel this responsibility of being out there and playing."

"I sign autographs for way longer when I'm hurt than when I'm active," Clark told Bird, referencing her outsized popularity. "That's never something I wish for, but I still want to make as much time as I can for people."

In total, Clark has missed 19 of the No. 5 Fever's 32 regular-season games — plus this year's Indianapolis-based All-Star Game — as she manages three separate muscle injuries.

Before her injuries, Indiana's 2025 season opener pit Clark against fellow WNBA sophomore Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky earned what is still this year's highest viewership, with 2.7 million people tuning in on May 17th.

Since then, all three rematches have seen the regional rivals face off without one or both of their popular 2024 draft picks.

Despite star absences, however, ratings are up across all WNBA teams, with national networks averaging 794,000 viewers per game through July — a 21% increase over 2024's full-season average.

The mysterious large purple egg stashed inside the Bay Area's Chase Center has hatched, revealing the first-ever mascot for the Golden State Valkyries: a bespectacled raven named Violet.

Violet made her official mascot debut during the No. 7 Valkyries' 74-57 Monday win over the No. 13 Connecticut Sun, with the Golden State crowd welcoming her by singing "Happy Birthday."

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"Ravens are commonly known as Valkyries' helpful and savvy counterparts in Norse mythology," the 2025 WNBA expansion team wrote in Tuesday's press materials, also noting that "because she is near-sighted, she sports gold glasses helping her achieve the excellent eyesight that ravens are known to have."

Nicknamed "Vi," Violet will bring "crucial knowledge [from her daily flights] back for the leaders of Ballhalla to use in battle."

Violet will now join other mascots in the league's spotlight, with teams seeing significant success from the popularity of WNBA-specific characters — sparked by the 2021 debut of New York Liberty icon Ellie the Elephant.

"The cultural phenomenon that Ellie has become today definitely exceeded our expectations," Liberty chief brand officer Shana Stephenson told Andscape last season. "She's become such an integral part of our game-day experience that the energy and atmosphere within our game I don't think would be the same without Ellie."

Chicago has also undergone a mascot revamp recently, replacing the team's old Sky Guy mascot with Skye the Lioness last year.

How to catch Violet the Raven at Golden State

Fans hoping to meet the Valks' new mascot will have a shot on Sunday, when Golden State returns from this week's road trip to host the No. 3 Atlanta Dream in the Chase Center at 8:30 PM ET, airing live on NBA TV.

Currently on a five-game losing streak, the No. 12 Dallas Wings — and star rookie Paige Bueckers — are trusting the process, hunting an upset as they take on the No. 5 Indiana Fever on Tuesday night.

"I think we have a really good young core, we have great pieces to build around, good complementary pieces," Bueckers told reporters on Sunday. "We're all really excited that the front office has doubled down on who we have here right now. I think that's what we're gonna build around."

"We've talked about it enough," the 2025 No. 1 overall draftee continued. "We need to put action behind our words."

First-year Dallas head coach Chris Koclanes has taken much of the heat for the Wings' skid, exiting the court to fans chanting "We want Nola" — a plea for assistant coach Nola Henry to take over the team.

"Stepping into this leadership role, [I'm] being challenged to step outside of character at times and when to hold people accountable in different ways and when to discipline in different ways, so I'm learning," said Koclanes, whose role with the Wings is also his first-ever stint as a head coach — at any level of the game.

"You know we didn't start the season off well, we're not playing how we should be playing. But we need the fans to support us," Dallas forward Myisha Hines-Allen said, directly addressing upset fans after the Wings' Friday loss to the No. 2 New York Liberty.

"At the end of the day, Chris is still our head coach. We still need him."

How to watch the Dallas Wings vs. Indiana Fever on Tuesday

The No. 12 Wings head to Indiana to take on the No. 5 Fever at 7:30 PM ET on Tuesday, airing live on ESPN.