John McEnroe was called out at the start of TNT Sport’s coverage of the French Open final, with his colleagues accusing him of being late and the show began with an empty chair in his place. Host Rachel Stringer opened the broadcast by welcoming pundits Tim Henman and Chris Evert, with McEnroe supposed to be sitting between them.
However, he was absent for the first few moments of the show, as Stringer explained that the American was running behind schedule. Evert joked that McEnroe is “always late” and Henman insisted that the show must go on without the personality as they brutally mocked their colleague.
After several minutes had passed, with Henman and Evert already analysing the final between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, McEnroe showed up on screen to huge applause from the crowd behind them.
He did, however, take issue with the claim that he was late. He explained that he had only agreed to work for TNT during the actual match and joked that he was in fact early, with the final not taking place for another hour.
Henman jabbed McEnroe by telling him that they had “waited hours” for him, only for the 1984 Roland Garros finalist to reply: “That’s your problem!”
The 66-year-old then explained: “We don’t want to get into the weeds on this reasoning, there’s an insinuation that I am coming in late. But the truth is that I was only asked to do the match, which I believe I am an hour and 10 minutes early for.
“Because I wanted to lay it all on the line for this, I was on the way and all of a sudden someone called from TNT UK and they said ‘hey where’s John?’ and I am stuck in traffic because there is a marathon on, so I came later than I thought. I was planning on being here at 1.15pm just in case anyone needed me.
“Which clearly you don’t! You have got Chrissy and Tim, my brother Andre [Agassi], Jim [Courier] who came over here, I mean come on.”
McEnroe was then asked if he had done his homework on the match, to which he replied: “Since when have I not done my homework?”
He also sent an emotional message to Billy Joel, who recently disclosed his Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH), a brain disorder. McEnroe said: “I wanted to just say quickly, I was watching TV pretty late last night and I was watching a documentary about Billy Joel.
“So I want to wish him a speedy recovery from what has happened with him, he has had to cancel a show, one of the greatest performers ever.”