John McEnroe at the 2012 French Open – Legends Over 45 Doubles, 6 June 2012 (Wikipedia Commons. Author: Pruneau)
John McEnroe stated on Wednesday that President Donald Trump once offered him $1 million to play against either Serena or Venus Williams.
According to BleacherReport, the tennis legend said the following on the sports television program In Depth with Graham Bensinger: “I was calling a match and suddenly I get this envelope, and it’s from Donald Trump, who is promoter galore.”
McEnroe, 59, continued: “So he wrote me a letter, it went, ‘Dear John, I want to offer you $1 million to play either Serena or Venus.”
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McEnroe — a former World No. 1 — went on to say he eventually rejected the offer, which he did not reveal when he received it, because he was simply not interested in facing off against either woman. However, he reportedly believed he could have defeated either of the two superstar tennis sisters.
According to a report from Sport24, McEnroe also turned down a $1 million offer to play Swedish rival Bjorn Borg in South Africa in 1980, when the country was being torn by apartheid.
McEnroe — who has donated to several Democratic political candidates over the years — was the subject of the 2017 biographical sports drama film Borg vs. McEnroe, which portrayed the famous 1980 Wimbledon Championship men’s singles final between himself and Borg. Shia LaBeouf starred as McEnroe in the Swedish-produced film, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival in September. The movie was then released in the U.S. on April 13.
Serena Williams returned to competitive tennis earlier this year after giving birth to her first child, a daughter named Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., late last year. She and Venus lost 6-2, 6-3 to Dutch duo Lesley Kerkhove and Demi Schuurs in the first round of the Fed Cup in February. Serena was also knocked out early in this year’s BNP Paribas at Indian Wells, California and the Miami Open.
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Serena Williams also withdrew this week from the 2018 Italian Open, which begins on Monday.
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