Tennis great John McEnroe says the men's game has completely eclipsed the women's over the past five years on the personality front.

The controversial American, in Kuala Lumpur to play an exhibition Tuesday with his old rival Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer and James Blake, pointed to Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic as crowd-pleasers.

But he had few examples to give on the women's side.

"Personally, I think over the last five years the men's game has totally eclipsed the women's game as far as personalities go," he said.

"A lot of women have retired. Obviously the Williams sisters, when they are motivated, they are probably the two best players in the world and create interest. But there's more personality among the men.

"I think it was disguised for a while because they thought it was getting out of control with the likes of me and (Jimmy) Connors.

"But nowadays, I think at the US Open you saw a lot of emotion come out of Roger, showing a side you hadn't seen as much, and there's Nadal, Murray, Djokovic and even (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga, for example.

"There's a number of players who I think actually show quite a bit of personality."

McEnroe, who won seven Grand Slam singles titles during his storied career and now works as a television commentator, said it boded well for the future, with all those players still relatively young.

"I think the game is on a real upswing and we should try to ride that," he said.

"We have come off what was perhaps the greatest match I ever saw when Roger played Nadal at Wimbledon and so I think we're in a good position to take advantage of that.

"I'd like to see all that translate into a surge in popularity. I'm real hopeful about the next five, 10 years."