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‘Apples and Oranges’ – Chris Evert’s Frank Reaction Once to John McEnroe’s Ridiculous Comment on Serena Williams

Published 09/27/2022, 12:00 PM EDT

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American tennis great Serena Williams recently played the last match of her career. After 27 years of absolute brilliance, the American hung her racket. Over the years, the 40-year-old had a see-saw ride in her career. While there were some wonderful memories, a few she would definitely live to forget.

The younger Williams sister has time and again faced the ridiculous targeting for having a muscular physique. While the 40-year-old is proud of her body, a few termed her muscular build as unfair to others. The debate resurfaced in 2017, prior to the Wimbledon championships when people were comparing Serena with male tennis players again. Former tennis star John McEnroe added more fuel to the debate with his controversial remark. However, a statement from 18-time Grand Slam champion Chris Evert ended it all.

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Chris Evert’s perfect reply shuts down the debate on Serena Williams

Back in 2017, somehow there started a debate that how will Serena fare if she had to compete against the men. It even worsened when John McEnroe made a controversial remark saying, “on NPR she would rank 700.” 

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Even after facing a great deal of backlash, the 63-year-old refused to take his comments back.

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When the question was raised in the presence of American tennis, great Chris Evert. She gave a perfect response that shut down the debate for good. “It’s not relevant. It’s apples and oranges,” Evert said.

Evert shuts down a hater for calling her a harsh critic

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Back in 2006, Serena Williams was going through a tough phase of her career. Chris Evert penned down an open letter to the American asking her to center her focus completely on tennis. The 67-year-old recently criticized American tennis star Coco Gauff, which brought back the memories of Evert’s open letter.

A fan took notice of the same and slammed Evert for her overly critical nature. Replying to this, the 18-time Grand Slam champion explained how her criticism made Serena only better. The legend pointed out that Serena won 18 more Grand Slam titles after that.

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Watch this story:  How Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, and Others Travel

Since the inception of social media, we have seen clashes between celebrities and fans have become very common. While it’s Evert’s job to point out the errors a player is committing, at times fans take it to their heart.

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Written by:

Gaurav Verma

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Gaurav Verma is a Tennis Author at EssentiallySports. He has post graduate diploma in management from IILM Graduate School of Management and a BBA degree from Bangalore University. He has 1-year of experience in the banking sector.
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Edited by:

Pritam Priyedarshi