McEnroe believes Barty walking away from tennis robs Swiatek of a true rival: "Just not having that rival, I believe it hurts the sport"

John McEnroe feels like Iga Swiatek doesn't have a proper rival after Barty retired and according to him it's hurts the sport overall.

Tennis has seen some amazing rivalries in the past decades and especially in the big three era on the ATP side. The WTA side didn't have such iconic ones but there were plenty of smaller ones and we don't have that today. McEnroe feels like it's a shame because Barty - Swiatek could have been a great one:

“Just not having that rival, I believe it hurts the sport, and there’s reasons that we can’t get into, there are a lot of reasons, there’s never one reason, and there’s no one for Ash Barty either, but hopefully everyone will look at things to make sure that these women on the tour are being taken care of to the best of their ability so they feel as comfortable as possible doing their thing.”

Turning his attention to Swiatek, McEnroe said:

“I think right now she’s by far and away the best player, she’s a fantastic athlete, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a young woman get slide into the corners, it reminds me of Novak quite a bit. So I would be surprised if she didn’t win a couple more French Opens at least, and she’s learned to play on hard courts so there’s no question that she’s the favourite in every tournament she plays."