John McEnroe says he hopes to keep working Wimbledon for the BBC even as the network pushes aside longtime faces Andrew Castle and Sue Barker in a modernization drive.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion, now 67, told The Sun he wants to stay on the BBC’s Wimbledon team while the Corporation prepares major line-up changes. McEnroe also made clear he preferred the old guard the network has already begun to replace.
Two fixtures of BBC tennis coverage are gone or going. Sue Barker, the frontwoman for nearly 30 years, was replaced in 2023 by Clare Balding when she retired. Andrew Castle, the former British No. 1 and a BBC tennis commentator for 23 years, called his last Wimbledon men’s final in July and walked away after the network told him he would not be the lead voice for the Championships’ 150th anniversary in 2027.
McEnroe did not soft-pedal what he thought of those exits.
On Barker, he said he still wanted her in the chair.
He told reporters:
"I heard about what you said. I didn’t notice. I think Sue Barker was great, personally."
And:
"I sort of wish she was still there, and I bet you a lot of other people do."
On Castle, the assessment was just as direct. McEnroe said Castle “did a great job” and that he did not fully understand the decision to move on from him.
He put it this way:
"As far as the coverage went, I didn’t notice a big change. I mean Andrew Castle did his last year."
Then:
"I thought he did a great job. I don’t necessarily know why suddenly they decided they didn’t want to do it with him."
Castle, 62, left after being told he would not be the main man for 2027. Scottish broadcaster Andrew Cotter is described as the favorite to take that role. Balding has already been cast as the steady replacement for Barker.
The network’s plan is not subtle. Significant changes to the Wimbledon line-up are expected next summer, with a push to freshen faces and bring in younger people ahead of the 2027 anniversary. McEnroe said he was not sure how much of that shift he had even seen on air.
He offered this:
"My time will come. Everyone’s time comes. I’m not sure exactly what the changes were that they were doing. I didn’t see a whole lot of change in my book."
One concrete change he did flag: the late-night show that used to run live is gone. Matches now run later into the evening, which he said may help ratings at 8, 9, and 10 o’clock. Beyond that, he sounded unimpressed by the idea that the product had been transformed.
"So is that a change? Maybe a little bit," he said. "But I didn’t notice...I mean I’m not on social media. I’m not exactly sure what they were doing, if that’s what you’re referring to as the change."
McEnroe’s own arrangement with the BBC has been lucrative and, by his account, simple. The BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2023/24 listed his pay for the Wimbledon fortnight in the £195,000, £199,999 band. He said the Corporation’s instruction to him was straightforward.
In his words:
"The BBC has been great to me because they said: ‘Just be you’, which I think is the key, in a way, to success in anything."
"You’ve got to be yourself, be authentic," he added.
McEnroe won three Wimbledon titles among his seven majors and remains one of the most recognizable voices in the sport. He framed his own future the same way he framed Castle’s exit: hang on until someone decides you cannot.
"Unless it’s just inevitable that at some point, you know, we’re all...you just hang in there as long as you can," he said.
That is the pattern the BBC is running. Barker gave nearly three decades as the face of the coverage and was rotated out on retirement. Castle gave 23 years and was told he would not lead the anniversary broadcast. Cotter waits in the wings. Younger names are being recruited while the veterans who built the audience are thanked and shown the door.
McEnroe still wants the job. The network still wants a fresher look. Viewers who liked the old voices are left with Balding, a slimmed late-night schedule, and a broadcaster that treats long service as a problem to solve before 2027.
Public institutions that chase youth makeovers rarely pause to ask whether the audience asked for them, they just swap the furniture and call it progress.
