Tennis fans deserve better than John McEnroe

Please, someone in American television, break the McEnroe grip on tennis microphones. Belching up words is not broadcasting, a craft John McEnroe never learned. Johnny Mac has become an entitled air quaffer, a lapsed past master turned trifler who refuses to work at it. Witness how he tends to butcher the names of anyone not ranked in the top five. As for younger brother Patrick, he burps out banalities with the same offbeat affect as his bro, apparently believing it passes for alert observation. You need Pepto after listening to them for two hours.

Coupled in the ESPN broadcast booth at Wimbledon this week, they have given the viewer about as much information as a couple of air compressors, complete with the irritating hissing. Here they were on a quality match in the round of 16 between Novak Djokovic and Alex de Minaur, whose appellation wandered through Johnny Mac’s mouth variously as di Miner, de Minhour and di Minoor before settling in as de Manure.

Tennis fans deserve better than John McEnroe

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