The start of the US Open is just over a week away and Williams will be aiming to complete a rare calendar year Grand Slam, having already emerged victorious from the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the French Open so far in 2015. “I feel it is combined, they assume I might in all probability lose to Serena”.
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Kimmel asked McEnroe about who he thinks will win between him and Williams.
“15 years ago Donald Trump, made an offer which I felt was not enough. She has a lot to lose to an old fart like myself and I have a lot to lose because if I lose to, God forbid to a woman, would not be allowed in a men’s locker room for 15 years”.
Appearing on the late night TV show the Jimmy Kimmel Show, the seven-time grand slam victor said he could defeat Williams, a victor of 21 grand slams.
“I believe I could still take here”, McEnroe said about playing Serena.
The most notable “Battle of the Sexes” in tennis occurred in 1973, when a 30-year-old Billie Jean King beat a 55-year-old Bobby Riggs 6-4, 6-3.
But McEnroe was quick to add that he would love to play a match with her on the court, rather than getting into a ring with her.
‘So that’s part of why it’s intriguing’.
That small fact didn’t prevent McEnroe from proclaiming that he could beat the greatest female tennis player in the game today.
And McEnroe then raised the prospect of a big-money showdown – equating the curiosity it will generate to the yr’s massive welterweight boxing bout between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
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Braasch, then ranked 203 in the world, later claimed he prepared for the matches with a leisurely round of golf and a couple of shandies.
