Credit: Tennis Channel

If Tennis Channel analysts Chris Eubanks and CoCo Vandeweghe were supposed to just have fun and rib each other live on the air, it appeared that things spun out of control very quickly.

The former American tennis pros were set up with a joke about Vandeweghe having a faster serve than Eubanks while testing out their serve speed this week. While playful banter like this is a hallmark of American sports television on almost every set you can find, things went in a very different direction as it appeared Eubanks didn’t find the humor in it.

Instead of playing up the bit, Chris Eubanks turned his attention to CoCo Vandeweghe and remarked that she was making the program all about herself instead of focusing on the current group of players.

“Is this going to be a thing now? Like we’re just going to keep every week, just being like ‘ooohh can you break 103,” Eubanks said mockingly.

“Chris, we can go back out today before the big T and I’ll wear this dress and throw down maybe a 115. I’ll keep rising,” Vandeweghe responded.

All fun and games, right? Not so fast, my friend. Eubanks then appeared to make things personal by calling out Vandeweghe for preferring to talk about herself rather than the current crop of tennis stars.

“See here’s the thing about me and you CoCo, I don’t like to just bask in my own career and accomplishments. I like to focus on the players. I like to focus on the players. I like to talk about everyone else. I don’t want to talk about myself and what I did and what my serve was. I understand we’re a little different. I get that. But let’s just try to focus on the players, eh? These are world class athletes. That’s where the focus should be. Not on you and I sitting up here in our little fancy clothes out there trying to test our serve speed,” Eubanks said.

“The difference between you and I is I keep recreating a new career and I just did it yesterday,” Vandeweghe retorted as Eubanks delivered a generational eyeroll when she began talking about her U-14 tennis history.

Chris Eubanks just signed a three-year deal with Tennis Channel a month ago after retiring at the age of 29. Tennis Channel CEO Jeff Blackburn lauded his hiring, saying, “He brings an authenticity and point of view that resonates on-air.” That authenticity may have gotten a little too real for CoCo Vandeweghe.

Maybe the pair will come out today and insist that they were really just joking and they are actually best friends off the air. That happened last year when NBA TV’s Sam Mitchell went off on co-host Chris Miles and appeared to share his home address before the pair took to social media to insist they were good.

But if that’s really the case, then the pair certainly did an immaculate job in convincing everyone watching Tennis Channel that they actually can’t stand each other.