“A terrible commentator,” John McEnroe gets heavily criticised after rudely calling Sebastian Ofner ‘career minor leaguer’ at the French Open

McEnroe has never shied away from expressing his opinion, and as a result, has always been under the radar of tennis fans.

“A terrible commentator,” John McEnroe gets heavily criticised after rudely calling Sebastian Ofner ‘career minor leaguer’ at the French Open

John McEnroe and Sebastian Ofner (Image via: Spox)

American great John McEnroe doesn’t shy away from calling a spade “a spade”, no matter whether his comments find resemblance with the tennis fans or not. McEnroe is currently doing a commentary stint at Eurosport where he called out the fourth round match between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Sebastian Ofner at the 2023 French Open.

However, at the start of the match, McEnroe made some bold comments on Ofner which didn’t sit well with the tennis fans. The seven-time Major winner in singles category mockingly called the Austrian “who is this guy” and even went on to say him a “career minor leaguer”, even after his heroic performance here at Roland Garros that saw Ofner passing through the qualifiers and making it to the fourth round.

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For the unversed, Ofner has mainly participated in Challenger circuits and has hardly qualified to the main draw of an ATP tournament. Ofner’s best result before his match against Tsitsipas had come at the 2017 Wimbledon, the same year in which he also made his ATP debut, where made it to the third round.

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However, exceeding all expectations, Ofner made it to last-16 at Roland Garros after emerging through the qualifiers before eventually going down against his Greek opponent in straight sets 5-7, 3-6, 0-6.

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Netizens have come in defense of Sebastian Ofner

Sebastian Ofner
Sebastian Ofner (Image via www.krone.at)

While it’s a fact that Ofner has so far in his career majorly played in only Challenger events, disgracing someone like this is not expected, especially from one of the all-time greats. It seems as if McEnroe has already paid price for his controversial comments as netizens have brutally trolled him.

Sharing a wide spectrum of reactions online, here’s what fans have to say:

While some section of people have also criticised his commentary stint. People have called out that McEnroe doesn’t add anything substantial to the commentary, while some even calling the Wimbledon as the worst Major as the American is called to lent his voices to the matches there.

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