John McEnroe's comments about Serena Williams were ill-conceived and wrong

FILE - In this Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017 file photo, United States' Serena Williams makes a backhand return to her sister Venus during the women's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook are among the finalists for best male athlete at the ESPY Awards. Tennis star Serena Williams and gymnast Simone Biles are two of the finalists for best female athlete. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)Show less

The tennis stars of yesteryear rarely settle quietly into retirement. Consider the case of Ilie Nastase, the top-ranked tennis player in the world in the 1970s, who kicked up a horrid storm in April with some ill-advised, racist comments about Serena Williams’s pregnancy. This week, Boris Becker, one of the greats of the game in the 1980s, was declared bankrupt by a British court, leaving many to wonder how his multi-million career earnings have run dry.

Now, John McEnroe, perhaps the sport’s most famous on-court firebrand, has claimed that if Williams were to play on the men’s tennis circuit she’d find it hard to be ranked higher than 700. He qualified the point by stating that he still thought Williams is an “incredible player”.

McEnroe’s comments barely deserve the oxygen of publicity. Williams’s record of 23 Grand Slam wins, on the other hand, speak for themselves. McEnroe should stick to punditry on the men’s game.