{"id":15694,"date":"2026-07-01T06:19:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T06:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=15694"},"modified":"2026-07-01T06:19:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T06:19:04","slug":"john-mcenroe-annoyed-by-serena-williams-question-on-bbc-after-wimbledon-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=15694","title":{"rendered":"John McEnroe annoyed by Serena Williams question on BBC after Wimbledon defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

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American tennis legend John McEnroe (Picture: BBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John McEnroe appeared to be irked by a question from BBC commentator Nick Mullins after Serena Williams’ Wimbledon return ended in a first-round defeat.<\/p>\n

Williams, the winner of 23 Grand Slams and seven Wimbledon titles, returned to SW19 after accepting two wildcards from the All England Club.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old mother-of-two showed glimpses of her brilliant former self on Centre Court but ultimately suffered a 3-6 7-6 3-6 defeat to Australia’s Maya Joint.<\/p>\n

Joint, 20, had lost 11 games in a row ahead of Wimbledon but withstood a spirited Williams fightback to reach the second round at SW19 for the first time in her career.<\/p>\n

Williams will hope for a better outcome when she swaps singles for doubles alongside her older sister Venus, 45.<\/p>\n

The return of the best female player in history caused excitement and surprise in equal measure with pundits and fans wondering what the future holds for Williams.<\/p>\n

That question was posed to McEnroe after her first-round exit at Wimbledon but he appeared to be frustrated by the line of questioning, perhaps believing it was a time to celebrate Williams rather than speculate over her future plans.<\/p>\n

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Serena Williams lost at Wimbledon in the first round (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After Williams left Centre Court to a standing ovation, BBC commentator Mullins asked: ‘Do you think this is it? She will be 45 if\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0here again in a year\u2019s time. What do you reckon John?’<\/p>\n

McEnroe, a three-time Wimbledon champion, responded: ‘You\u00a0think I know?\u00a0Don\u2019t\u00a0ask me a question\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0unanswerable.’<\/p>\n

Mullins then directed his line of questioning to fellow American tennis great Tracy Austin while revealing he was getting ‘looks’ from outspoken pundit McEnroe.<\/p>\n

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Williams lost to Maya Joint in three sets (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 60-year-old commentator said: ‘Well\u00a0I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know… what do you think, Tracy?\u00a0You\u2019ve\u00a0known her since she was\u00a0very, very young.<\/p>\n

‘Will there still be fight in her to come back at the age of 45 and give it another go?<\/p>\n

‘We\u2019re\u00a0just\u00a0speculating, John,\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0look at me like that. It\u2019s\u00a0what we do,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0our job.’<\/p>\n

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Centre Court rises for @serenawilliams \ud83e\udef6#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com\/O3XRkjQ4cv<\/a><\/p>\n

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 30, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

McEnroe then interjected: ‘I\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0have thought she would have come back in the first place but you go ahead, Tracy.’<\/p>\n

Austin also appeared reluctant to delve into Williams’ future in the sport, however, and said it was time to ‘celebrate’ her shock return as well as a much-needed win for struggling Joint.<\/p>\n

‘She\u2019s\u00a044 and she won seven majors before Maya Joint was even born. It was incredible for her to put herself out there again,’ said Austin.<\/p>\n

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Williams, 44, during her Wimbledon return (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘I think we\u00a0need to celebrate Maya Joint now and celebrate Serena Williams coming back at 44.’<\/p>\n

Speaking beside the court before Williams’ Wimbledon comeback, McEnroe dismissed claims she was ‘taking a risk’ by agreeing to return.<\/p>\n

‘I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0think there\u2019s much of a risk for Serena,’ he said. ‘We already think\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0the GOAT and one of the greatest athletes \u2013 male or female \u2013 in the history of any sport.<\/p>\n

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The Williams sisters will play doubles at Wimbledon (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘The fact she\u2019s decided to do this \u2013\u00a0there’s\u00a0a little bit of,\u00a0why? You assume\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a love of the game,\u00a0maybe she\u00a0misses the competition.<\/p>\n

‘But then also, what is she expecting from this? She\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0come here to lose first or second round, did she?’<\/p>\n

The iconic Williams sisters will team up for Wimbledon doubles action on Thursday against Argentina’s Solana Sierra and Colombia’s Camila Osorio.<\/p>\n

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You're a star, Maya \ud83d\udcab#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com\/btuZyQ7nA6<\/a><\/p>\n

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 30, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Williams opted out of media duties after her first-round singles defeat but provided a brief statement to the press, saying: ‘It was really great to be back at Wimbledon. I never expected to be here.<\/p>\n

‘The atmosphere was amazing. Walking out was amazing. I definitely relished it and missed it and enjoyed the moment more than anything.’<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Williams’ opponent Joint will face Alexandra Eala in the second round of Wimbledon after ending a 11-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

‘I didn’t get much sleep last night, I was up until 2am just thinking about it,” Joint said in her on-court interview.<\/p>\n

‘Walking out, I forgot the warm-up, my legs weren’t moving. I really don’t know what to say right now. I don’t know what just happened.<\/p>\n

‘This court has had so many huge names that have played on it. She has so much aura, she is such a legend.<\/p>\n

‘I have been dreaming about this since I was a little kid, so this is pretty crazy.’<\/p>\n

For more stories like this,\u00a0check our sport page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook,\u00a0<\/strong>Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tComment now<\/title><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<span><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/> John McEnroe annoyed by Serena Williams question on BBC after Wimbledon defeat<br \/>\n<br \/>#John #McEnroe #annoyed #Serena #Williams #question #BBC #Wimbledon #defeat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American tennis legend John McEnroe (Picture: BBC) John McEnroe appeared to be irked by a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11145,5443,316,1908,9333,2396,11091,6295,8283],"class_list":["post-15694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-annoyed","tag-bbc","tag-defeat","tag-john","tag-mcenroe","tag-question","tag-serena","tag-williams","tag-wimbledon"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/john-mcenroe-7922_1782860599.png",1200,630,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/john-mcenroe-7922_1782860599-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/john-mcenroe-7922_1782860599-300x158.png",300,158,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/john-mcenroe-7922_1782860599-768x403.png",640,336,true],"large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/john-mcenroe-7922_1782860599-1024x538.png",640,336,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/john-mcenroe-7922_1782860599.png",1200,630,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/john-mcenroe-7922_1782860599.png",1200,630,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/john-mcenroe-7922_1782860599-1024x538.png",1024,538,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/john-mcenroe-7922_1782860599-540x340.png",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/news678.top\/?cat=6\" rel=\"category\">Sports<\/a>","tag_info":"Sports","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}