Serena Williams would be ‘like number 700’ on the men’s circuit, says John McEnroe

In 2012, John McEnroe called Serena Williams “the greatest player to ever play the game.” Yesterday, in an interview with NPR, he said that if Serena played on the men’s circuit she’d be “like No. 700 in the world.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t think Serena is an incredible player,” he told them, while promoting his new memoir But Seriously. “I do. But the reality of what would happen on a given day is Serena could beat some players.”

“But,” he countered, “if she had to just play the circuit — the men’s circuit — that would be an entirely different story.”

2012 wasn’t the only time he’d praised her as the best; In 2015 when she won Wimbledon, he called her “the greatest athlete of the last 100 years.”

Perhaps it was fine when she was, for some reason, the only female athlete on his radar, but insecurities seem to have taken hold, and in yesterday’s interview he went even further to clarify that there is not a single female athlete who is better than her male counterpart: “I just haven’t seen it in any other sport, and I haven’t seen it in tennis,” he said.

Anyone who follows tennis knows McEnroe is famous for his temper — smashing rackets and yelling at opponents — but even we weren’t aware his masculinity was this fragile.

Let’s just hope a pregnant Serena doesn’t challenge him any time soon. He might break.

@carolinephinney