…Game, set, match to Serena

He was once as famous for his outbursts as for his tennis, but it seems that John McEnroe has met his match in Serena Williams.

With days to go until the first balls are hit on the grass courts of Wimbledon, the pair have delivered volleys at each other after McEnroe claimed that Williams would be ranked 700 on the men’s professional tour.

Serena Williams and John McEnroe

His comments in America — “if she played the men’s circuit she’d be, like, 700 in the world” — prompted an elegant response from the seven-months pregnant Williams, 35, who has won 23 Grand Slam titles.

As she relaxed at her home in Florida, the seven-times Wimbledon champion tweeted: “Dear John, I adore and respect you but please please keep me out of your statements that are not factually based. I’ve never played anyone ranked ‘there’ nor do I have time. Respect me and my privacy as I’m trying to have a baby. Good day sir.”

The controversy has rekindled memories of the Battle of the Sexes series of matches. In 1973, Bobby Riggs, a retired 55-year-old player who was once considered the best player in the world, challenged some of the top female players to a match. He defeated the 30-year-old Australian Margaret Court 6-2, 6-1, but lost later that year to Billie Jean King, the American great who was 29 at the time, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

There has previously been interest in McEnroe, who won Wimbledon three times during the 1980s, and Williams facing each other on the court. Donald Trump pledged $1 million in 2000 for a match between the pair, but the offer was not taken up. “I never wanted to play Serena,” McEnroe said.

Yesterday he refused to apologise for his comments, made during an interview on radio to promote his new book, But Seriously, but attempted to explain them.

“I respect Serena very much,” McEnroe told CBS. “She is the greatest female player that ever lived, then the lady [the radio presenter] said to me, ‘Why did you say woman, why don’t you just say the greatest tennis player that ever lived?’ and so then I felt the need, however unfortunate probably, to defend myself, just say what I really felt, which is about what I think she would be.

“Serena has a way with words. I’ve been in the room five different times with five of my kids [when they] were born. I don’t want anything to go wrong with Serena because she is pregnant. I don’t want to upset her or whatever it was. I think she’s doing [it] tongue-in-cheek as well.”

McEnroe was asked to estimate the ranking he believed he would have if he still played. “You’re asking me at 58 years of age what I would be ranked on the tour if I had to play best of five [sets]?” he replied. “I would currently be about 1,200 in the world.”

Even the male player ranked 701 in the world waded into the debate. Dmitry Tursunov, 34, who was once ranked 20, believes that he can beat Williams. “I would hope that I would win against Serena,” Tursunov told the BBC. “It would be a similar argument to who would run faster, the fastest woman or the fastest man? Tennis is becoming more and more a physical sport, so it’s going to be hard for a woman to beat the men.”

Williams once faced a man in an unofficial match. In 1998 she and her sister Venus watched some of the men practising at the Australian Open and claimed they could beat a player ranked about 200. Matches were set up with Karsten Braasch, a German ranked 203. He defeated Serena, then aged 16, 6-1 and won 6-2 against Venus, then 17.

“My training regime was a leisurely round of golf in the morning, followed by a couple of shandies,” he said.