John McEnroe is one of tennis’ more outspoken individuals, as a player and pundit who has seen it all.
His professional career started back in 1978, and he arguably remains as relevant today as he was then, having held down a position as a lead broadcaster across various outlets. Love him or hate him, the American is committed to the sport like few others.
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It’s therefore a surprise that we didn’t get to hear his opinion on the controversy over influencers at the US Open, as they came under fire for their conduct during certain matches at the latest major event.
Criticised for being too loud and for utilising bright ring lights mid-point, it felt like everybody had a view on this phenomenon, which was initially created to help boost the sport’s profile.
Well now, speaking for Eurosport and HBO Max, John McEnroe has finally weighed in.
He began by simply stating: “It’s pretty obvious what my view is on social media from the fact that I’m not on it at all.
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“People keep telling me you have to be on there to have a presence, to make sure people still care about you.”
Then, diverting from his own reasons behind avoiding social media, McEnroe turned his attention to those who rely solely upon it.
He added: “As for these people being at tennis matches and disturbing the players. I see why the US Open might have wanted to bring new people in our sport, but it can’t be helpful if you are trying to play a big match and you look up and someone is filming themselves with a ring light and making a lot of noise doing it.
“If it helps the sport and brings more interest to it, maybe it could work. But I know that if I was playing, I’d be ‘screaming to get these people out of here!'”
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McEnroe also wanted a rule change made after the US Open had concluded, agreeing with Andy Roddick’s stance on Alexander Zverev’s own controversy surrounding his serve.
Whilst Taylor Fritz was similarly wary of them disrupting matches, he insisted that inviting influencers was a net positive for the sport.
He argued: “I don’t care if people are coming to tennis that aren’t like massive tennis fans or like maybe don’t even know completely what’s going on.
“I think it’s good for the sport to draw eyes. More eyes for the sport means more people will naturally be converted into true tennis fans.”
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Fritz added, speaking on the Big T podcast: “I think it’s good for the sport. As long as they’re not doing the ring light disrupting a match.
“I think you need to know at a level how to act at a match,” he said. “But who cares if they don’t know what’s going on?”
