Former tennis player John McEnroe, who last won an ATP title way back in 1991, believes that he could challenge Serena Williams in a tennis match if he trained “properly”. The 59-year-old, who retired from the sport in 1992, won the first of his seven Grand Slams in 1981, the years Serena was born. Serena, 37, has won 23 Grand Slam titles.

Before he became the US president, Donald Trump had offered McEnroe $1 million to play Serena or her sister Venus Williams, on the lines of the famous battle-of-the-sexes match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in 1973. King, then 29, had beaten the 55-year-old Riggs 6-4 6-3 6-3. McEnroe said he probably would be able to challenge Serena. “It’s not something I ever wanted to do, honestly, but it’s something that I’m always asked,” McEnroe told a news show in Australia.

“I don’t know why I’m the guy. Why doesn’t he ask someone else? Go ask any of the other players, whoever the hell it is. It’s always me that somehow, it’s like I’m the one,” he said. “It started in Australia 20 years ago because Serena and Venus when they were, I think, 18 and 19 or whatever said, ‘We can play with the guys and beat the guys’.” Maybe McEnroe is asked to play Serena because last year, he had commented that if Serena was playing on the men’s circuit, she would be “like 700 in the world”.