Sky Sports commentator Jonathan Overend has worked in tennis for two decades (Image: Sky Sports)
Tennis commentary will change the way you watch and experience a match. And Jonathan Overend, Sky Sports’ lead tennis commentator, is well aware of that. Overend has been working in the sport for two decades and joined the Sky Sports team when the broadcaster obtained the UK rights to the US Open in 2023 and the ATP and WTA Tours from 2024 onwards.
Since then, he’s talked viewers through five-set thrillers, epic rivalries, and jaw-dropping shotmaking. Overend himself thought he’d seen it all in tennis until the likes of world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz came along, producing a type of tennis even he’d never seen before. And he wants to translate those feelings from inside the stadium to viewers watching at home.
After covering countless Wimbledons, the World Cup, the Ashes, and Premier League games for the BBC earlier in his career, Overend has settled at Sky Sports, where he’s already called countless rip-roaring matches. One that sticks in his mind is the 2024 Madrid Open final, which saw Iga Swiatek save three championship points to beat Aryna Sabalenka 7-5 4-6 7-6(7).
Overend guided viewers through the entire three-hour and 11-minute affair, and it still stands out. The experienced presenter and commentator told Express Sport: “The one I think back to, always, and it’s really interesting at the moment, because of the shifting dynamic. Sabalenka Swiatek in Madrid, 2024. The Madrid final. And what a match. Three match points saved, I think it was. And what I thought was so interesting about that match is that, to me, was the peak of the Sabalenka-Swiatek rivalry, where there was nothing to choose between the two at the top of the game. And here, you had Sabalenka with match points and Swiatek prevailing.”
That match has only become better for Overend with hindsight, as Swiatek is no longer the unbeatable force she was a couple of years ago. He continued: “Now it just feels like there’s been a shift. It feels like Swiatek’s gone from having this sort of invincibility to now losing unexpectedly, which she never used to lose unexpectedly. And I think that’s great for us, in a way, great for viewers, because it means there’s some unpredictability at the top of the women’s game. So even though Sabalenka is well clear at the No. 1, you’re now thinking, whether it’s [Elena] Rybakina, or whether it’s [Coco] Gauff, whether it’s an [Amanda] Anisimova, whether it’s a [Jessica] Pegula, you’ve got players who know they can take out Swiatek. So that domination of the former No. 1 is not there anymore.”
Overend also spent five hours and 35-minutes in the booth for Dan Evans’ record-breaking win over Karen Khachanov at the US Open later that year. The Brit rallied from 0-4 down in the deciding set to win 6-7(6) 7-6(2) 7-6(4) 4-6 6-4. “That was amazing. Five hours, 35, longest match in US Open history,” he recalled.
“I’m on it with Feliciano Lopez, and it’s one of those matches where, for so long, you can kind of see what’s happening, and Khachanov is winning, and it’s going to be a comfortable final set for love, and then suddenly, it turns. And because we know a little bit about Dan Evans’ character from knowing him over the years, you just know he’s not done. And as every game ticked over, you just had this realisation, ‘Okay, he’s gonna do this’. And when he levelled it and got two breaks in a row, it’s like, ‘Okay, this is properly on now’.
“And it was wild out on that court. Absolutely wild. And it was such a fun match to do. I love a comeback. Everybody loves a comeback story, and for Dan to do it at that stage of his career, and to make history. The longest match in tournament history. I mean, it may never be beaten.”
Carlos Alcaraz has left Jonathan Overend speechless with his trickshots (Image: Getty)
The emotions sometimes take over in the box. “People sometimes ask, you know, ‘Are you standing up? Are you sitting down?’ I always sit down to commentate, but I do a lot of leaping out of my seat. And there have been times over the course of my career, not at Sky, I have to say, where I have yanked the microphone cable out of the box with my foot, because I’m so excited and jumping onto my feet. The Olympic final was one of those, the year before last,” he explains.
One player who has Overend that excited is Alcaraz. Aged just 22, the Spanish superstar already has seven Grand Slam titles to his name and dazzles with his ripping forehands and sneaky dropshots. And the Sky Sports commentator wants viewers at home to live the point as those in the stadiums do.
“And when you see shotmaking that you just haven’t seen before… I’ve been doing this a long time. I started working in tennis in 2003, full-time, over 20 years ago. And you think you’ve seen it all. You think you’ve seen the best of the best in [Roger] Federer. And then [Rafael] Nadal comes along. And then [Novak] Djokovic comes along, and the rivalry, and Serena Williams, but then you get players who are arguably better than them. How is this? How is this actually possible?” he continued.
“And then you’ll see a shot that you’ve never seen. A shot that Alcaraz played against [Brandon] Nakashima in Tokyo last year. The tight angle, power drop shot. I mean, what even is that shot? How do you describe it? It’s in those moments where you just have to sit back and let the viewers take it all in. In radio, I’d have had to actually come up with a description of how that shot looked. Now it’s more like, how does it feel? How does it make you feel?
“To me, that’s one of the things we try to do as commentators, and I think it’s a trap that sometimes a lot of younger commentators fall into when they try and just describe what they’re seeing. The viewers can see the action. What I want to know, when I’m watching the TV, is how does it feel? What’s it like when you’re in that stadium, and you see a shot like that? And that’s where I’d try to always imagine it’s the first time watching Alcaraz, or the first time watching Coco Gauff, or whoever it might be. Because then, when they pull off one of those shots, you’re as amazed at the people who are in the stadium seeing it for the first time. And that’s genuinely thrilling. And I don’t ever want to lose that. And I hope on Sky, we really try and reflect the excitement and how special some of these moments are.”
Alcaraz isn’t the only player who gives Overend those feelings behind the microphone. There have been plenty of questions over who can challenge Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at the top of the game, and he’s also excited about the emerging talents on the ATP Tour.
He added: “I really hope that younger players, and I’m sensing that this is happening, that younger players try and bring that sort of ambition onto the court. Don’t just think, ‘Okay, I can rally here. I can do my cross-court drills, and I can end up the winner.’ Not anymore. Not if you want to beat Sinner and Alcaraz. Not if you want to get to the top of the women’s game and beat the remarkable talents there are in the top 10 at the moment.
“You’ve got to bring something new to the table, something special, and in the men’s game at the moment, you look at some of the teenage talents, Justin Engel from Germany, Rafael Jodar from Spain, they’re players that bring it, and I love that. Because that’s gonna be great for us as a broadcaster of the sport. You don’t want to see people just waiting for mistakes. You want people who are gonna force the issue. And if you want to beat Alcaraz, you’re gonna have to be some player. So start early. That’s what I’d say, and I’m seeing that with some of these teenagers.”
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