Rusty Weiss
ESPN tennis analyst and former professional player Patrick McEnroe is catching serious heat after claiming he could “easily” beat current women’s world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in a hypothetical match.
McEnroe is the 59-year-old brother of tennis legend John McEnroe.
The comments came during a listener call on his SiriusXM radio show, Holding Court with Patrick McEnroe. McEnroe was asked how he would fare against the four-time Grand Slam champion if he were still in peak condition.
Rather than answering directly, McEnroe drew a comparison to a high school boys’ basketball team facing a top WNBA squad, suggesting the boys would win handily, and extended the logic to imply his own superiority over Sabalenka.
‘They beat them, easily,” the caller replied, to which McEnroe said: “Ok, thank you for the call…”
“I don’t want to get into it,” he said after laughing. “It doesn’t matter to me because it’s just a different game.”
— welovesports40 (@welovesports40) April 4, 2026
Sabalenka vs Patrick McEnroe: ESPN Analyst, 59, Claims He Could Easily Win
McEnroe, who peaked at No. 28 in the ATP rankings during his playing career and retired in 1998, further emphasized the perceived gap between men’s and women’s tennis by stating that the top 17-year-old junior boy in the world would defeat Sabalenka by a score of something like 6-1, 6-1.
He described the men’s and women’s games as fundamentally different while acknowledging the entertainment value of the WTA tour.
And, sensing the backlash, he tried to walk back the comments a bit later on, saying, “I don’t say that to denigrate women’s tennis… I love women’s tennis.”
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The controversy has reignited long-standing debates about physical differences in the sport, coming months after Sabalenka’s exhibition “Battle of the Sexes” match against Nick Kyrgios.
Kyrgios was ranked No. 671 in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) at the time of the match. Sabalenka, No. 1.
The rules implemented were meant to intentionally handicap Kyrgios by taking away his serve. At the same time, Sabalenka’s side of the court was reduced by 9% based on average movement speed differences between men and women.
And that's all she wrote!
— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) December 28, 2025
Nick Kyrgios defeats Aryna Sabalenka to win the Battle of the Sexes 👏 pic.twitter.com/9Yysdt6F5V
Critics panned the match, largely because of the outcome. Sabalenka defended it.
“I don’t understand how people were able to find something negative in this event,” she told reporters. “I was playing great tennis. It was an entertaining match. Yeah, he won the match, but I showed great tennis. It wasn’t like 6-0, 6-0. It was a great fight. It was interesting to watch. It brought more eyes on tennis.”
Will McEnroe be next? Would anybody care if John’s little brother played a match against Aryna?
