Is John McEnroe right about Serena?

[MercuryMadness]

I know nowt about tennis but from watching bits here and there, I cannot believe McEnroe is right. Serena looks so powerful and masterful with the ball.

I can see her giving lots of male professionals a fucking drubbing.

Is he really right?

Chrissie Evert Lloyd, who was ranked at no 1 for some of her career, and was consistently in the top 3 for many years, and won 18 grand slams was married to John Lloyd, whose top ranking ever was about 20-odd, and who (in comparison) only won one singles grand slam, and 2 or 3 doubles.

She could never beat him when they played against each other.

Women's bodies are different to men's.

Yes, like flyweights are different to heavyweights. What is your point about women's sport? That it's always inferior to men's sport?

Sorry, I'm searching my post, and I can't see anywhere where I said, or implied that women's sport is inferior to men's, Assasinated.

I said women's bodies are different to men's, and as you rightly point out, a flyweight boxer's body is different to a heavyweight boxer's, and they are not expected to compete against each other.

he didnt diminish her at all .he praised her .
neither did he say she was not a great athlete.he said she was not the greatest.why is that so hard for the people on here to accept?why are you trying to invent things he didnt say?
slarti,you are now claiming that he shouldnt diminish the fact that she is in the top 800million athletes in the world(10%)-why is that a great achievement?should they all get the millions of $ she gets a yr?

I was wondering why the descriptions of exactly how Chris Evert couldn't beat her husband were relevant. It's the same kind of stuff that gets wheeled out by misogynists who want to enforce the view that women's sport is inferior and irrelevant.

hardcore lady type- you are having the same problem as mcenroe .
it doesnt matter what you said or didnt say - it will be automatically
read to assume an attack on womenkind-its nonsensical.its based on an inferiority complex.
men and womens sports are different-theres no need to compare them.both are great in their own way.
which is why its so hard to understand why posters on here are swearing on about serena hammering men at tennis.first its complete nonsense and secondly,why would this make the poster feel good?

adanu I didn't see or hear the interview so I may have got it wrong, but the report I heard on the radio yesterday mentioned that McEnroe described Williams as a "great female athlete" and was then questioned if it was right to make that distinction or just to describe her as a great athlete, at which point he defended his distinction by saying that she would be ranked about 700 overall.

And yes, I'd say that being the best in your sport and among the best athletes in the entire world makes one a "great athlete" without the need for qualification.

MCENROE: Best female player ever — no question.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Some wouldn't qualify it; some would say she's the best player in the world. Why qualify it?

MCENROE: Oh! Uh, she's not, you mean, the best player in the world, period?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah, the best tennis player in the world. You know, why say female player?

MCENROE: Well, because if she was in, if she played the men's circuit, she'd be, like, 700 in the world.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You think so?

MCENROE: Yeah. That doesn't mean I don't think Serena is an incredible player. I do, but the reality of what would happen would be I think something that perhaps it'd be a little higher, perhaps it'd be a little lower. And on a given day, Serena could beat some players. I believe because she's so incredibly strong mentally that she could overcome some situations where players would choke 'cause she's been in it so many times, so many situations at Wimbledon, the US Open, etc. But if she had to just play the circuit — the men's circuit — that would be an entirely different story

Its basically saying - Williams is a great athlete, for a girl.

adanu98

Although if that is the transcript of the interview, I can see how that situation developed.

Shame.

Women's bodies are different to men's bodies. Yes, on average, we are smaller, slower, and weaker.

But FFS, Serena Williams is growing a whole new person in her body!

datun,
i dont think mcenroe says that at all.he says she is the greatest in her category of all time.she couldnt compete though in a certain other category that she is not eligible for .this is the reality whether people like it or not.
point is :it doesnt matter.no one is claiming shes a worse athlete because of that.

McEnroe saying she's the best female tennis player would be fine if he also said Murray* was the best male tennis player.
They are different disciplines, like best male 100m sprinter, best male 10k runner, best female marathon runner are all different, they aren't competing against each other. Where would Bolt come in the 10k races? It's irrelevant.

*If that's true, I don't know a lot about tennis.

deydo
he wasnt asked any question about murray

he answered what he was asked.
thats how an interview works

adanu if that's the transcript it seems I've heard a pretty skewed report of what he said. Maybe, just maybe, you could argue that he should have deflected the question but overall I think he's been pretty hard done to by the interviewer and subsequent reports throwing him to the baying mob. Nothing like a bit of sensationalism to beef the ratings eh.

I realise that adanu. I mean in general. If people generally referred to the best male in their discipline as the best male in the best male in their discipline, not just "the best".
Either that, or simply describe Serena as "the best" and no need for the qualifier.
Ideally (for me), McEnroe's response to Garcia-Navarro's question would be "yes, she's the best in the world in her discipline, which is women's tennis".

adanu98

The way that interview played out it's very unfortunate.

This is where it hit the skids.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Some wouldn't qualify it; some would say she's the best player in the world. Why qualify it?

problem is i dont think this is where it hit the skids at all.
this was the plan and what the interviewer was looking for..
got great headlines for her interview.and mcenroe got painted as the bad one.

adanu98

But that only works if you take what he said out of context.

And although I realise this is exactly what has happened, she couldn't have known it would happen that way.

People who think the transcript is wrong, from what I read somewhere, the reporter was referring to a chapter in his book, and it's not the first time he has referred to Serena in terms of her ranking. He is also known for having a dig at her.
His statement was in a long line of statements he had made about her before. I would not see that has defending her or female athletes. If it was a first I would understand.

I've just been thinking about this whilst watching Wimbledon and what Murray gets, that's McEnroe doesn't is that Serena is just so far ahead of the rest of her field that that's what makes her 'the best' in general. The best comparison I can think of is BBC sports personality of the year - if an f1 driver won that award he wouldn't beat the 2nd place footballer in a game of keepy uppy because their fields are different, but his overall relative achievement was greater.

His view was no different to saying a boxer is the greatest 'middleweight' boxer of all time... but not the greatest boxer, outright.

It is a view, and unless Serena happens to join the ATP tour, it is every bit as unverifiable as suggesting that she would be a top 10 player amongst the men.

I'm not sure why people reacted as they did to what he said, some accusing him of misogyny/racism with no foundation whatsoever. It was a big fat nothing-burger as they say.

People can't wait to have a pop at the Williams sisters, much of it appallingly racist as well as misogynist. They have the temerity to be successful black women. This

Didn't he used to be somebody

I remember him! He was that sulky brat who used to throw a tanty every time an umpire ruled against him.

I like JM and he is a good commentator now. However his salivating over Querrey's win yesterday was a bit much. I also think he is a bit of a male chauvinist.