John McEnroe yet again finds himself in the thick of all the action! In the R1 match between Novak Djokovic and Radu Albot, he was accused of disrespecting the Moldovan tennis star for his struggles to compete against the Serb. Tennis fans have yet again been amused with the reaction of the American tennis legend. What did McEnroe say, though?

McEnroe was quite the contentious individual during his prime playing days. Spectators would be guaranteed to hear swearing by the American player in any of his matches. Although he has mellowed over the years, he can’t stop drawing the ire of the tennis world.

During the commentary, McEnroe was heard saying, “Do I really have to be out there with this guy? Don’t I have an automatic bye?” He perhaps tried to read Djokovic’s mind a bit. The Djoker won the match. He took the first set by 6-2 and looks quite comfortable in the second one too! The comment from McEnroe didn’t turn out to be too appropriate for the tennis world. However, this isn’t the first time he has been caught, “disrespecting” a lower-ranked player! 

During the 2023 Australian Open final John McEnroe was spotted repeatedly mispronouncing Stefanos Tsitsipas’ name. Then again, at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships, he made an ill-educated comment on the Chilean tennis star, Nicolas Jarry. Fans were quite furious with him after that incident, but did it stop there? The answer is a big no!

There have been many such instances where McEnroe was caught a bit guarded with his epic commentary. During the first-round match of the 2024 AO between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Zizou Bergs, he made yet another “disrespectful” comment about the Belgian.

Fans failed to understand how can one sit in the commentary box without doing a bit of research on the players. He has also been involved in similar controversial incidents featuring Jiri Lehecka and Francisco Cerundolo. However, in this case, he perhaps might have also wanted to reflect a bit on his admiration for Novak Djokovic.

John McEnroe snubs Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to pick Novak Djokovic as one of the greats in the racquet sport

In December 2023, John McEnroe gave an interview to ESPN and during the interview, he revealed his admiration for the Serb. He hailed Novak Djokovic as “one of the most remarkable athletes” and then went on to heap praise on his hunger and desire to succeed even at this age. McEnroe also added, “I love Roger (Federer), I idolised Rod Laver. I have the greatest respect for Rafa Nadal who gives more of an effort consistently. But this guy. I don’t even know where to begin. You just have to admire him.”

Djokovic is currently eyeing his 25th Grand Slam title in his career. He won the title last year, but interestingly no man has ever succeeded in defending the US Open title since Roger Federer in 2008.

The Swiss Maestro is the only man to defend the titles at three major tournaments in the Open Era. Djokovic did it at Wimbledon and Australian Open, but at the US Open, he failed to defend his title in previous times. Is this the time he has been waiting for all these years?