John McEnroe caused some controversy with comments he made in an NPR interview over the weekend when he said, “If [Serena Williams] played the men’s circuit she’d be like 700 in the world.” His comments came after the host, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, said Williams could be seen as the “best player in the world” instead of the “best female player.”
Reaction to what McEnroe said has been strong, and when given the chance to apologize Tuesday on “CBS This Morning,” the legendary tennis player didn’t back down.
Williams was made aware of McEnroe’s initial comments, and reacted on Twitter by saying, in part, “please keep me out of your statements that are not factually based.”
While McEnroe didn’t apologize for what he said, he did make it clear that his intent wasn’t demeaning. He appreciates Williams’ game, and his main point was that female and male players shouldn’t be compared at all.
“She’s the greatest female player that ever lived, then the lady said to me, I don’t remember which one, but she said, ‘why did you say woman, why don’t you just say the greatest, you know, tennis player that ever lived’ and so then I felt the need, however unfortunately probably, to defend myself. I don’t know, just say what I really felt, which is about what I think she would be.
…
“I don’t want anything to go wrong with Serena because she’s pregnant. I don’t want to upset her or whatever it was. She’s — I think she was doing a tongue-in-cheek as well. And I think that deep down we’re talking about something — I can’t even believe we’re talking about it.”
Near the end of the interview, McEnroe mocked the situation by being asked to re-rank the world’s top five tennis players ever, and ranked Williams fifth.
