John McEnroe calls out BBC and Wimbledon as millions will miss Fery match | Tennis | Sport
John McEnroe appeared to take aim at the BBC’s decision to schedule Arthur Fery’s match. (Image: BBC/Getty)
Tennis legend John McEnroe has risked the wrath of BBC senior bosses after appearing to criticise the broadcaster for their part in scheduling Arthur Fery’s match against Alexander Zverev at Wimbledon. The British hopeful, who reached his first Grand Slam semi-final at SW19, will face the world No.2 first on Centre Court.
Fery and Zverev both played their quarter-final matches on Wednesday, some 24 hours after the other semi-finalists Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic. Despite having a full day less to recover, they will be leading the daytime session at Wimbledon later today on Friday.
The decision has caused some unrest amongst British tennis fans, with Fery’s match starting at 1.30pm and therefore denying millions of workers the chance to tune in and watch live. One BBC Radio 5 Live radio caller, identifying herself as ‘Karen’, said it was ‘rather strange’ that Fery’s match was scheduled first and McEnroe, 67, sided with her.
“Fery’s on first because U.S TV wants it on as late as possible,” McEnroe said with a chuckle. “The World Cup… what time does England play? They’re trying to, in case Arthur went late with the second match, it would overlap the England match.”
Karen then asked “what about tomorrow?” before adding “there’s no excuse, no excuse!” to have Fery on first. McEnroe replied: “I’m going to agree with Karen. The hell with it!”
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Arthur Fery takes on Alexander Zverev on Friday (Image: Getty)
Former British No.1 Tim Henman then tried to offer some nuance into the debate: “I think you were alluding to the match, sort of, globally. Which is the bigger match? Sinner against the 24-time Grand Slam winner,” he said, before McEnroe then interjected: “They [Sinner and Djokovic] played Tuesday, the other guys [Fery and Zverev] played Wednesday.”
Henman said: “Yeah, but they’ve still got 48 hours to recover and so, looking at the British television audience, there was a pretty strong… what’s the word, recommendation from BBC and the U.S.”
McEnroe again refused to back down and again interrupted, saying: “Why did the BBC want the early one? Because there was something coming up later? There was another game… it wasn’t even England.”
However, the final decision on Wimbledon’s scheduling and order of play rests with the All England Lawn Tennis Club.
Jannik Sinner, the world No.1, will play Novak Djokovic in the evening session on Friday. (Image: Getty)
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After ascertaining that it was Spain and Belgium kicking off at 8pm BST on Friday, the American icon finished with: “They [Fery and Zverev] could’ve played second, they could’ve played second.”
Karen then made the point that people not able to watch the match live would struggle to avoid the result being spoiled for them. McEnroe then joked that people would be able to leave their work and take a half day.
It is the first time that a British wildcard has made it to the last four of a men’s singles draw at Wimbledon in 25 years. In beating Flavio Cobolli in the quarter-finals, Fery became only the fifth man after Henman, Andy Murray, Cam Norrie and Roger Taylor to get there.
