American tennis pro Thai-Son Kwiatkowski issued some harsh criticism of John McEnroe’s commentary work, stating that it is “insane” that the American tennis legend can go air despite doing “zero research” about some of the players he is about to commentate on.
McEnroe, a former seven-time Grand Slam champion, has been working as a tennis analyst and commentator for many years now. Over the years, McEnroe’s work in broadcasting has been criticized and questioned as there have been moments when the former world No. 1 would not know anything about some players or he would be mispronouncing their names.
John McEnroe© Getty Images Sport – Julian Finney
On Monday, McEnroe was commentating for ESPN the match between two-time Grand Slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas and world No. 129 Zizou Bergs. Bergs, whose career-high ranking saw him ranked at No. 112 in the world, lost in the Australian Open qualifying third round but made the main draw as a lucky loser following Matteo Berrettini’s withdrawal.
During the match, fans took to social media to criticize McEnroe’s work, while many of them were praising Nick Kyrgios, who was also sitting in the commentary box. Fans weren’t the only ones to criticize McEnroe as world No. 316 Kwiatkowski also gave his take on McEnroe as a tennis commentator.
Kwiatkowski criticizes McEnroe’s commentary work
“Insane to me that time and time again J. McEnroe goes on air and just admits he has zero clue who a player is. (Today, bergs, 120 atp) just says to the world, hey guys, I’ve done zero research for my job and I’m just going to disrespect someone who’s top 150 in the world at a job,” Kwiatkowski wrote on X.
Insane to me that time and time again J. McEnroe goes on air and just admits he has zero clue who a player is. (Today, bergs, 120 atp) just says to the world, hey guys, I’ve done zero research for my job and I’m just going to disrespect someone who’s top 150 in the world at a job
— Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (@thaikwiatkowski) January 15, 2024
Responding to Kwiatkowski, one person wrote: “It’s terrible. And his fellow commentator never says anything to him about it.”
John McEnroe© Getty Images Sport – Clive Brunskill
Another wrote: “And then, when that lower ranked player he’s never heard of is putting up a good fight, he’ll say it’s the best they’ve ever played in their life.”
Meanwhile, Bergs didn’t embarrass himself against Tsitsipas as he competed extremely well against the world No. 7 before the Greek came back from a set down to complete a 5-7 6-1 6-1 6-3 win.
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