On Tuesday, John McEnroe joined “CBS This Morning,” where he discussed the controversy surrounding recent comments he made about how Serena Williams would compare to the top men’s tennis players on the planet.
McEnroe had said, during an interview on NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” over the weekend, that “if [Williams] played the men’s circuit, she’d be, like, 700 in the world.”
The retired player’s comment led to intense anger. Williams herself eventually criticized McEnroe over Twitter, asking him to “please keep [her] out of [his] statements.”
When asked on “CBS This Morning” if he would like to apologize, however, McEnroe replied, “Uh, no.” He then said that “tennis [is] unlike other sports ― they’re always asking about how women” would fare against him.
McEnroe did admit that the comment “wasn’t necessary” and said that Williams is “the greatest female player that ever lived,” ranking her fifth of all-time among men and women.
But McEnroe often seemed unsure of exactly what to say, leading to a number of rambling sentences and a suggestion that he didn’t want to “upset her” because he didn’t want “anything to go wrong with Serena[’s pregnancy].”
Williams is currently expecting a baby with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. In January, she won the Australian open while pregnant with the child.
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