John McEnroe has refused to apologise for saying that Serena Williams would be ranked around No700 in the men’s game.

Williams, the holder of 23 grand slam singles titles, told McEnroe to “respect me and my privacy as I’m trying to have a baby,” after he made the comments during an interview with NPR on Sunday. During the interview McEnroe stressed that Williams was the “best female player ever — no question” and added that a woman one day could be the best player on the planet.

On Tuesday, McEnroe stood by his comments. “I felt the need, however unfortunately, to defend myself and say what I really felt, which is about what I think she would be [in the men’s rankings],” he told CBS’s This Morning. “I’ve got a solution. Solve the problem, and I’m sure the men would be all for this – the men and women play together. And then we don’t have to guess.” The 58-year-old added that he thinks he would be ranked around 1,200 in the world if he was playing on the men’s circuit today.

McEnroe, who won seven grand slam singles titles during his career, was bemused his comments had attracted so much attention. “I didn’t know it would create controversy. I’ve said this 1,000 times,” he said. “I don’t want anything to go wrong with Serena because she’s pregnant, I don’t want to upset her. I think she’s doing it tongue in cheek as well and I think deep down we’re talking about something ... I can’t even believe we’re talking about it.”

Many believe making comparisons between men’s and women’s tennis does little for the game, something that Williams herself has touched upon in the past. “For me, men’s tennis and women’s tennis are completely, almost, two separate sports,” Williams said in 2013. “If I were to play Andy Murray, I would lose 6-0, 6-0 in five to six minutes, maybe 10 minutes. No, it’s true. It’s a completely different sport. The men are a lot faster and they serve harder, they hit harder, it’s just a different game.”

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Williams is pregnant with her first child and is on a break from the game. She plans to return in 2018 and said her pregnancy was unplanned. “If you would have told me last year in October or November that I would have a baby, not be pregnant but have a baby, I would have thought you were the biggest liar in the world,” she said in an interview with Vanity Fair published on Tuesday. “This is kind of how I am right now. This is happening sooner than later, and it’s going by so fast.”