John McEnroe lists Serena Williams as "one of the greatest athletes ever-male or female"

The farewell tour for Serena Williams has generated quite the buzz on the tennis circuit with fellow players and experts chipping in with their views on the American's legacy in every other interview.

Speaking to Fox News recently, former World No.1 John McEnroe described Williams — who, earlier this month, announced her decision to hang up her tennis racket following this year's US Open —as the "greatest female athlete in the history of sports" and "one of the best athletes – male or female".

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McEnroe went on to say that Williams' on-court achievements put her in the company of Tom Brady, Michael Jordan and the likes, adding that the 23-time Grand Slam winner had nothing left to prove.

"Serena’s the greatest female athlete, to me, in the history of sports," McEnroe said. "I don’t care who you could come up with. She’s one of the greatest athletes period – male or female.

"She has put herself along the likes of Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, whoever you wanna say. She’s 40 years old. She’s done everything in tennis. She’s got nothing to prove."

Pointing to Williams' interests outside of tennis, McEnroe said the tennis world was expecting her retirement sooner rather than later.

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Speaking about the elusive 24th Grand Slam title that would have seen Williams equal Margaret Court's all-time record, McEnroe said that while it is unlikely to happen, it does not take away from what she has achieved over the course of her illustrious career.

"It sounds like she wants to have more kids, awesome," McEnroe said. "She’s got a lot of other interests. People want to be a part of what she’s doing. She’ll be doing just fine.

"We were sort of expecting this to happen. She wanted to win a couple more, one or two more, break the all-time record, win a couple after having her daughter. That doesn’t look like it’s gonna happen but that, to me, doesn’t take away that she’s the greatest of all time."

Williams is scheduled to face Emma Raducanu in the first round of the Western & Southern Open, and will likely make her final appearance at the US Open later this month.