John Isner Thinks the 800th-Ranked Male in Tennis Would Beat the No. 1 Female

John Isner may have accidentally stuck his hand in the proverbial hornets' nest during a recent interview with 790 in Atlanta. You see, Isner, a young, brash, Georgia grad (from Greensboro, NC -- holla!) who recently upset Andy Roddick in the US Open, got goaded into answering a "no-no" question from one of the hosts.

That question? "How far down the men's list would beat the number one woman in the world. How far down do you believe the number goes?" Isner's answer? Well, you know what's coming ... and yes, it's as good as advertised.

"Oh gosh! I don't want get the backlash from this comment. It would go down pretty far. (Host: You know the truth. Just say the truth, you know it, you're there.) I think 700 or 800 in the world."

Now, I don't want to freak on Isner here, because, for all we know, he's right. And I'm no sexist either -- bowling and blogging aside, I don't think there are many athletic events that I could take highly trained women down in; so, yeah, I'm willing to admit that I couldn't pull that off. (Lord knows there are plenty of women that would whip me in tennis.)

But I think it's worth noting that I'd be interested in seeing Venus Williams (or Serena Williams would be fine) square off against Isner -- and for the record, he stated immediately after that he hoped they "didn't get a copy of this interview.

I would probably put my lazily-earned cash on Venus, to be honest, but I think it would be pretty close. The most important thing to remember here, though, is that if a radio host ever tries to goad you into saying something sexist, well, just stop. Or deftly avoid the question. Do not, under any circumstances, incriminate yourself on talk radio. The backlash is just miserable. And Mr. Isner should be getting a little bit of it in 5 ... 4 ...