Aryna Sabalenka, the current world No. 1 who has been one of the most in-form players in 2026, has been told that she would lose 6-1, 6-1 against the top-ranked junior boy.
It has been a season to remember for Sabalenka. The 27-year-old has won three titles this year, including the "Sunshine Double" following back-to-back wins in Indian Wells and Miami.
She also captured her second consecutive Brisbane International title before finishing runner-up to Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open.
At the time of writing, Sabalenka currently sits almost 3,000 points ahead of Rybakina in the rankings, but Patrick McEnroe, the younger brother of John McEnroe, believes she would lose against the top-ranked boys' junior.
Advert
On a radio phone-in on Sirius XM, McEnroe was asked how he would fare against Sabalenka if they played now.
Back in December, Sabalenka took part in a Battle of the Sexes exhibition match against Nick Kyrgios – who was ranked outside of the top 600 at the time – and suffered a 6-3, 6-3 defeat.
McEnroe, who achieved a career-high singles ranking of 28, would deflect the question and ask what would happen if the best 15-year-old boys in high school basketball faced the top WNBA team.
The caller replied: "They beat them, easily," to which McEnroe said: "Ok, thank you for the call... I don't want to get into it. It doesn't matter to me because it's just a different game."
McEnroe insisted he wasn't trying to "denigrate" women's tennis but said Sabalenka would be beaten in straight sets by the top junior boy.
"The short answer is that I was a decent pro as a journeyman-type player, ranked most of my career between 30, 75, 100, whatever it was," he said.
"But if you took the top junior player in the world, the top 17-year-old and put him up against Sabalenka, they beat her 6-1, 6-1 or something.
"But again, to me it's irrelevant. I don't say that to denigrate women's [tennis], I love women's tennis. I'll watch that if there's a great matchup more than I'll watch a men's blowout match. It's just a totally different game.
"And tennis, for some reason, people don't look at it the same way because they see Madison Keys or Sabalenka hit their forehand as hard as [Jannik] Sinner. Well, they're not hitting it with the same spin and the movement's different."
Bulgarian Ivan Ivanov currently sits at No. 1 in the ITF boys junior rankings. The 17-year-old lifted back-to-back junior Grand Slam titles last year, picking up wins at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Topics: Tennis
Jack Kenmare