John McEnroe Says Serena Williams Among ‘The Greatest,’ Compares Her To Tom Brady And Michael Jordan

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Serena Williams is undoubtedly one of the greatest female tennis players to ever do it, but where exactly does she rank among the greatest athletes of all time? Tennis legend John McEnroe believes she deserves to be in the same conversation as the Tom Bradys and Michael Jordans of the world.

McEnroe recently spoke with OutKick and with Williams recently announcing she'll be retiring from the game after the upcoming U.S. Open, the seven-time Grand Slam winner reflected on Serena's greatness.

"Serena is the greatest female athlete, to me, in the history of sports. I don't care who you could come up with, she's one of the greatest athletes period, male or female," McEnroe explained.

 

"She's put herself among the likes of Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, Steph Curry now. Billie Jean King obviously changed a lot of things for women sports, but she's 40-years-old, done everything in tennis, has nothing to prove, and it sounds like she wants to have more kids, awesome."

"She'll be doing just fine. We were sort of expecting this to happen, but I think she wanted to win a couple more (Grand Slams) and break the all-time record and win a couple after having her daughter. That doesn't look like it's going to happen, but that doesn't take away that she's the greatest of all time." 

ALLYSON FELIX DISAGREES WITH SERENA WILLIAMS’ STANCE ON CAREER VS. FAMILY

In her recent announcement about her pending retirement, Williams made headlines while explaining that it's unfortunate females have to choose between having a family and having a career.

“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family,” Williams wrote. “I don’t think it’s fair. If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family.”

Williams' last Grand Slam singles title came at the Australian Open in 2017. Unless she puts together a magical run in New York at the U.S. Open, she'll likely end her career with 23 Grand Slam singles titles, one behind the all-time leader, Margaret Court.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.