ESPN Facing Pressure To ‘End’ McEnroe Era After Wimbledon

For more than a decade, the McEnroe brothers have been the faces of ESPN’s men’s tennis coverage.

John McEnroe and his brother, Patrick McEnroe, have served as top announcers for ESPN’s Grand Slam coverage, which typically includes Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, among other top events.

But while John McEnroe is one of the greatest tennis players in history and his brother, Patrick, has had a lengthy career in sports media, ESPN is facing pressure to end the impressive media run of the two brothers from New York, especially following what we saw at Wimbledon this year.

ESPN brought Andy Roddick into its Wimbledon coverage this year. Roddick, the last American man to win a Grand Slam, winning the U.S. Open more than two decades ago, served as a top analyst on ESPN’s desk coverage, with Malika Andrews.

But Roddick impressed, to the point where fans are now calling for him to take over as lead in-match analyst.

“Haven’t watched that much Wimbledon, but feels like Andy Roddick has been very good and gone over very well. He’s definitely cutting through for me,” Ben Koo shared on X.

Another fan added: “The tennis world has known it was time for a changing of the guard long before Roddick stepped in the booth.”

One shared: “There’s no doubt Andy Roddick is a major talent as an analyst and is a great addition for ESPN.”

ESPN facing pressure to ‘end’ the McEnroe era

Awful Announcing is officially calling for ESPN to end the McEnroe era and put Roddick in the No. 1 spot.

“Listening to Roddick is a pleasure, likely a result of honing his voice on his popular podcast Served. Served is not some tennis bros podcast. Roddick has real journalists like Jon Wertheim working with him.  The podcast had been digging so deeply into what, at the time, was still-brewing civil war within the Professional Tennis Players Association that the PTPA hired a defamation law firm to handle the queries,” Awful Announcing writes.

“If I ran ESPN tennis (yes, envision a red-clad devil, tail and pitchfork, cackling with delight), I would start my transition from the McEnroe era soon. The only question is, will Roddick want to take on a far more involved role from speaking in the studio in bursts, to the all-consuming play-by-play of a tennis tournament. Roddick put out Served content during Wimbledon and handled limited broadcast booth commentary, a dynamic that will likely continue during the U.S. Open. Would he shut down Served for fortnights to take on a bigger role? So much of sports and media happens outside of TV that the answer might not be as easy as it once was.”

The McEnroe brothers still carry a lot of weight in the tennis world. And many do still find them entertaining.

But a changing of the guard could be in store for ESPN.

This story was originally published by The Spun on Jul 13, 2026, where it first appeared in the Tennis section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.