If I were a man, I’d have been a legend — Serena Williams

Serena Williams may not have achieved her goals in 2016, but her expectations is that she should be called a legend in the sport that brought her fame and fortune.

She reached three Grand Slam finals, but won only one in the follow-up to a year of such dominance and grace. Along the way, she lost her No 1 world ranking after 157 weeks, but she made up for that in a different, typically distinctive way.

“I think if I were a man, I would have been in that conversation a long time ago,” she said in an interview with ESPN’s “The Undefeated”.

“I think being a woman is just a whole new set of problems from society that you have to deal with, as well as being black, so it’s a lot to deal with — and especially lately. I’ve been able to speak up for women’s rights because I think that gets lost in colour, or gets lost in cultures. Women make up so much of this world, and, yeah, if I were a man, I would have 100 per cent been considered the greatest ever a long time ago.”