former tennis player John McEnroe Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Alongside the rising group of young tennis stars on the court, an exciting new generation of tennis announcers is taking the mic.

At Wimbledon and Roland Garros, fresh talent has been a nice complement to a great summer of tennis. It has made the issues with some of the sport’s top announcers even more apparent, and this week in a column for the Washington Post, the legendary Sally Jenkins took a sledgehammer to the old guard — namely, John McEnroe.

In Jenkins’ words, McEnroe and his brother, Patrick, “have given the (Wimbledon) viewer about as much information as a couple of air compressors, complete with the irritating hissing.”

Jenkins notes multiple examples of the McEnroes’ defiant lack of preparation and seeming disinterest in their jobs.

She highlights an uncomfortable moment live on air at the French Open, in which John McEnroe’s studio co-hosts were visibly frustrated as he showed up hours late for the broadcast. On the call with Chris Fowler at Wimbledon, John McEnroe incorrectly called a Grigor Dimitrov serve the “biggest serve he ever hit” despite a faster one earlier in the same tournament. At the 2023 Australian Open, McEnroe was incredulous that Chinese player Juncheng Shang went by the nickname “Jerry,” before being told on-air that Shang lived in Florida.

“When each retired, he knew the games and habits of his opponents and how to find all the angles against them,” Jenkins wrote of the McEnroes. “Those days are over.”

During TNT’s inaugural run at the French Open, Brian Anderson and Andre Agassi earned high marks from a record audience. Mike Monaco is turning heads at ESPN, despite being lumped into Trinity Rodman’s complaints about the coverage of her at Wimbledon in support of her boyfriend Ben Shelton. Youngsters like Sloane Stephens and Andy Roddick appear ready to take the reins as analysts of the future.

This rising generation is marked by new stars like Shelton, Janik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Emma Raducanu, and Coco Gauff, who are emerging.

Jenkins believes John McEnroe is allergic to studying the game and its new stars, which detracts from the broadcast experience.

“There is a raft of truly talented voices out there who apply themselves and enhance the audiovisual medium with real insight,” she wrote.

Tennis is a sport in which the announcers are unusually consistent across networks. The McEnroes appear on ESPN, TNT, BBC, NBC, and Tennis Channel. Many outlets around the world use “world feeds” that broadcast the main signal over partner networks in other countries.

Jenkins is levelling the same complaints against the McEnroes that many have directed against Charles Barkley, John Smoltz, or even Wayne Gretzky over the years. It is easier to find minor gripes and jokes as an analyst than to continue finding passion in covering sports and informing audiences.

That doesn’t mean there is no place in tennis media for John McEnroe. But as interesting new stars take over the sport and the hierarchy of tennis evolves, perhaps Agassi or Roddick is ready to take his and his brother’s place.

About Brendon Kleen

Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.