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By Chris Oddo | Friday February 10, 2017

Speaking to ESPN in a spot to promote his affiliation with the 141st Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Andy Roddick naturally got to talking about his good friend and fellow American Serena Williams. The former U.S. Open champion and World No.1 has long been a fervent supporter of Williams and he says that he believes that the 23-time major champion now belongs to a special class of athlete, gender and discipline be damned.

“To see her go from the girl I used to practice next to all the time to become this icon -- and not just one of the greatest women athletes of all time, but one of the greatest athletes of all time, it's amazing,” Roddick said.

Those are words that Williams and her supporters will like to read. Last year at Wimbledon she famously responded to the question “There will be talk about you going down as one of the greatest female athletes of all time. What do you think when you hear someone talk like that?” by saying “I prefer the word ‘one of the greatest athletes of all time."

Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

A month later at the U.S. Open Nike unveiled its now famous “Greatest Athlete Ever” ads (see video above) that featured the slogan “Greatest Female Athlete Ever” with the word female struck out.

The message is loud and clear. We get that Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Tom Brady and Roger Federer are in the running to be considered the greatest athletes ever—why not Serena?

“I would like to see people, the public and the press and other athletes in general just realize and respect women for who we are, what we are and what we do,” Williams said last year at that same Wimbledon presser. “I’ve been working at this since I was three years old… Basically my whole life I’ve been doing this and I haven’t had a life and I don’t think I deserve to be paid less because of my sex. Or anyone else for that matter, in any job.”

Roddick was asked if Serena was the GOAT, male or Female in the interview with ESPN. “I don't think it is a question,” he said. “I think it is a matter of correcting rhetoric. Saying she's the best woman athlete shouldn't be taken as offensive as long as she's in the conversation with the greatest male athletes of all time as well. We need to enter her into the conversation with Jordan and Ali. I think that's where the respect lies, and where the conversation needs to go, after the acknowledgement of what she's done for women in sports”

 

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