“Such a ridiculous lack of professionalism”- Controversy erupts at the Australian Open as commentator John McEnroe playfully admits to not knowing Zizou Bergs, gets bashed by angry tennis fans online
John McEnroe is a part of Eurosport's commentary team for the 2024 Australian Open.
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John McEnroe (L), Zizou Bergs (R) (Sources: X/Imago)
Tennis legend John McEnroe is getting heavily criticized on social media for something he said while commentating on the 2024 Australian Open.
He is one of the commentators in Eurosport’s panel for the Grand Slam this year and during the first-round match between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Zizou Bergs, he openly admitted that he did not know who Zizou Bergs was.
Talking about the match, Zizou Bergs was off to a great start as he won the first set, putting the Greek under pressure.
However, Stefanos kept his composure and made a brilliant comeback from there to win the match in four sets. The Greek emerged victorious 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 and has thus proceeded into the second round with ease.
As if the loss against Tsitsipas wasn’t enough for Berges, John McEnroe said on national television that he had no clue who the Belgian was and hadn’t seen any of his matches. Many fans thought that it was extremely disrespectful and that the 7-time Grand Slam winner should do his job better.
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.A particular fan wrote.
A particular fan pointed out that McEnroe does this pretty commonly and that he claimed to not know Dino Prizmic as well. Prizmic was the player that Novak Djokovic faced in the first round. Prizmic has an ATP ranking of 187, while Zizou Bergs has a ranking of 129, which is not that low a rank.
Fans react to John McEnroe disrespecting Zizou Bergs
Most of the fans online are angry at John McEnroe for the callousness that he shows while commentating. They pointed out that it is the job of a commentator to do research on the players involved and their records.
The fact that McEnroe does not know so many of these players shows that he is just not good at his job.
Sharing a wide spectrum of reactions online, here’s what fans have to say:
Some fans also claimed that the 64-year-old is added to commentary panels just because he is a tennis legend, but that, unfortunately, does not transcend his commentary skills and that he is simply poor at that job. He was also accused of leading a ‘rockstar life’.
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Rishab Dutta
(794 Articles Published)