--- title: John McEnroe vs Serena Williams: Says He Won't Apologize description: Retired tennis player John McEnroe says he won't apologize for saying Serena Williams would be ranked 700th in the world among men canonical: https://time.com/4834503/john-mcenroe-serena-williams-apology/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-27T13:21:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:13.434Z article:section: Sports og:title: John McEnroe Says He Won't Apologize For His Serena Williams Comments og:description: McEnroe said Williams would rank as the 700th-best player amongst her male counterparts og:url: https://time.com/4834503/john-mcenroe-serena-williams-apology/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3aad5a7afc7ed06e/6988d3727cdbacd25dd58f24/john-mcenroe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Champions Tennis - Day Three og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John McEnroe Says He Won't Apologize For His Serena Williams Comments twitter:description: McEnroe said Williams would rank as the 700th-best player amongst her male counterparts twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3aad5a7afc7ed06e/6988d3727cdbacd25dd58f24/john-mcenroe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John McEnroe Says He Won't Apologize For His Serena Williams Comments > Sponsored content. 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John McEnroe says that if Serena Williams played on the men's tour that she would be ranked far below than what she is now._ by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 27, 2017 1:21 PM UTC  LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 02: John McEnroe of the United States acknowledges the crowd during his match against Henri Leconte of France during day three of the Champions Tennis at the Royal Albert Hall on December 2, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 02: John McEnroe of the United States acknowledges the crowd during his match against Henri Leconte of France during day three of the Champions Tennis at the Royal Albert Hall on December 2, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)Dan Istitene—Getty Images by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 27, 2017 1:21 PM UTC [John McEnroe](http://time.com/4520003/shia-labeouf-borg-mcenroe-photo/) said he will not apologize for claiming [Serena Williams](http://motto.time.com/4757244/female-athletes-competing-winning-while-pregnant/) is only as good as the 700th-best male tennis player in the world. In an interview with _CBS This Morning_ on Tuesday, McEnroe said he would not apologize for the comments, which he made in an interview with _NPR_ on Sunday. Instead, McEnore lamented that tennis players are often asked to rank each other, regardless of their gender — which he says athletes in other sports rarely consider. When asked why he would make the comment, McEnroe said: “It wasn’t necessary. I didn’t know it would create controversy.” “She’s the greatest female player that ever lived,” McEnroe said. > [](https://twitter.com/CBSThisMorning/status/879676537745887233) McEnroe, a retired tennis star who is now promoting his new book, was given the chance to re-do his rankings on _CBS This Morning_. He placed Williams in the fifth spot. “OK, you happy now?” he appeared to joke. As for himself, McEnroe said he “would be, currently, about 1,200 in the world.” (When he was active in the sport, McEnroe had attained the No. 1 ranking in singles and doubles.) Williams [called out](http://time.com/4834270/serena-williams-john-mcenroe/) McEnroe on Twitter Monday evening, asking him to “please please keep me out of your statements that are not factually based.” “Respect me and my privacy as I’m trying to have a baby,” Williams, who is pregnant, tweeted. “Good day sir.” Williams has won 23 singles Grand Slam titles, 14 more in doubles and is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes in the world. McEnroe’s initial comments came as he was responding to a question from NPR about why he doesn’t call Williams the greatest tennis player, period. “If she played the men’s circuit she’d be like 700 in the world,” he said. “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.” McEnroe’s assessment of Williams’s rank among her male counterparts differs from one he gave in the past. In 2015 after her Wimbledon win, McEnroe called Williams “arguably the greatest athlete of the last 100 years,” [according to ESPN.](http://www.espn.com/tennis/story/%5F/id/19744673/serena-williams-tweets-response-john-mcenroe-ranking-comments) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4834503/john-mcenroe-serena-williams-apology/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4834503/john-mcenroe-serena-williams-apology/"},"headline":"John McEnroe Says He Won't Apologize For His Serena Williams Comments","datePublished":"2017-06-27T13:21:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:54:13.434Z","description":"McEnroe said Williams would rank as the 700th-best player amongst her male counterparts","url":"https://time.com/4834503/john-mcenroe-serena-williams-apology/","keywords":["tennis","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3aad5a7afc7ed06e/6988d3727cdbacd25dd58f24/john-mcenroe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3aad5a7afc7ed06e/6988d3727cdbacd25dd58f24/john-mcenroe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Champions Tennis - Day Three","caption":"Champions Tennis - Day Three","creditText":"Dan Istitene—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/tennis/","name":"tennis"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4834503/john-mcenroe-serena-williams-apology/","name":"John McEnroe Says He Won't Apologize For His Serena Williams Comments"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"John McEnroe: Serena would be 'like No. 700 in world' on men's circuit","description":"John McEnroe says that if Serena Williams played on the men's tour that she would be ranked far below than what she is now.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/BknCJZ1V/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-06-27T12:42:58.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BknCJZ1V.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4834503/john-mcenroe-serena-williams-apology/","duration":"PT47S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4834503/john-mcenroe-serena-williams-apology/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```