Jamie Murray in a Wimbledon bunker and Laura Robson courtside. After Sir Andy Murray admitted he struggles to find tennis coverage “interesting or insightful”, it is clear the BBC have entered a trying phase.
Trying in more ways than one. They would love to have Sir Andy but he has chosen YouTube over a seat on the Beeb, and just as the sport searches for darlings in this post-Federer era, so too are the BBC.
It is now four years since Sue Barker quit the BBC. Her A Question of Sport axing was announced in 2020, and she then left her Wimbledon role on her own terms in 2022, having anticipated she would eventually be “pushed out”.
Watching Wimbledon has not been the same since.
In her farewell tribute video, it was clear Barker was deemed irreplaceable. “She’s giving up the baton but I’m not sure anybody can pick it up,” Martina Navratilova said, while the narrating John McEnroe added: “You see the thing about our Sue, she just is Wimbledon.”
