WATCH: John McEnroe’s old pressroom brawl at Wimbledon goes viral amidst recent journalist blunders at the Grand Slam

As cries about journalistic blunders at Wimbledon 2023 grow, check what happened with John McEnroe back in 1981.

WATCH: John McEnroe’s old pressroom brawl at Wimbledon goes viral amidst recent journalist blunders at the Grand Slam

Paula Badosa, John McEnroe, Aryna Sabalenka (Images via Wales Online, Twitter)

The recent blunders during the press conference by the reporters at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships led to an old video of the 1981 semi-final at SW19 going viral on Twitter. John McEnroe, who was still eyeing his first title at the All England Club, came up for the post-match presser after beating Australia’s Rod Frawley with the score of 7-6(7-2), 6-4, 7-5 in three hours and one minute.

But a few reporters there started questioning John McEnroe about his relationship with his girlfriend Stacy Margolin. One interviewer asked whether Margolin, who was knocked out from the singles as well as doubles in the tournament, is staying for his final against Bjorn Borg.

YouTube video

To this, the New Yorker said he didn’t want to waste his time talking about the incident before lambasting another reporter who also asked things about his personal life by saying: “It’s not of your damn business!” The reporter continued that at Wimbledon, people are much more interested in McEnroe’s private life than that of his tennis, which made McEnroe utter “You’re a disgrace to the press.”

FS Video

A brawl seemed to start after other reporters criticized the two aforementioned reporters when McEnroe suddenly stormed out. This fuelled the altercation and two reporters started fighting, slamming each other down, before controlling themselves for another press conference involving Rod Frawley.

Watch the viral video which has resurfaced online:

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Know the recent blunders at 2023 Wimbledon featuring Paula Badosa and Aryna Sabalenka

WATCH: John McEnroe's old pressroom brawl at Wimbledon goes viral amidst recent journalist blunders at the Grand Slam
Paula Badosa, Aryna Sabalenka (Images via WTA)

Spain’s Paula Badosa, who was forced to retire mid-match against Marta Kostyuk due to a persistent back injury, was congratulated by a journalist for the win. Badosa corrected the reporter that she has lost the match.

But the reporter might be having a brain-fade moment as he continued to ask her how she felt about her fitness and confidence level. “For your information, I just lost. I didn’t win,” came her reply. The moderator had to intervene and said Badosa did not win. Finally, the information seemed to sink in.

Another incident regarding journalistic error happened post-Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka‘s win against France’s Varvara Gracheva. During her on-court interview, the interviewer forgot that Sabalenka did not play last year due to Wimbledon’s ban on Russian and Belarusian players because of the Russia-Ukraine war.

“You obviously want to play here. I know you want to do one or two better than you did last year,” asked the questioner. These awkward interviews have left the fans slamming the reporters on social media platforms.

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