John McEnroe compared Serena Williams to NBA star Stephen Curry as he feels both revolutionized their respective sports. In basketball, Curry showed that it is possible to shoot and make three-pointers well beyond the arc.
In tennis, Williams proved that it is possible to play extremely powerful tennis – constantly overpower rivals – and have lots of success while doing it. There weren’t too many secrets in Williams’ game but no one had the answer for her game during her prime.
“Serena took it to that next level because she had the greatest serve ever, better than a lot of guys. Unbelievable,” McEnroe told ESPN. “I would compare her in a way, the way she changed it, to Steph Curry in a way because Steph Curry has changed the basketball game, everyone is shooting 3-pointers, but no one does it as well as him.”
McEnroe: People tried to match Williams’ power, but that was another level
Now, Williams is part of her prime and she is not a dominant force anymore. But for a very long time when she was the opponent WTA players feared.
“People try to match the power, but that was a level beyond I think anything — it took 20 years, basically, the better part of 20 years,” McEnroe added. “And also Serena is not 19 or 18; she’s 40. So, it took that long for, really, people to catch up to her where they can match her.
It just shows you how much of an impact she had. And obviously, because in my book the playing field is more level in the women’s tennis game, the women’s tennis than any other sport, the better athletes in general — and Chrissie mentioned girls of color — it’s inspired, obviously.
Hopefully, it will continue to give more kids that opportunity to get out there and play because that’s exactly what we need in my book. So the impact is going to be long lasting, obviously.” Williams is set to retire from tennis after this year’s US Open.