{"id":127396,"date":"2025-09-10T11:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T11:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/127396\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T11:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T11:00:10","slug":"us-open-staff-worker-slams-john-mcenroe-for-dismissive-and-hurtful-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/127396\/","title":{"rendered":"US Open staff worker slams John McEnroe for \u2018dismissive\u2019 and \u2018hurtful\u2019 comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former world number one John McEnroe<\/a> has landed himself
\nin hot water after an unwanted comment towards one member of the staff at the
\nUS Open<\/a>. The 66-year-old, who has been a regular feature in the tennis
\nbroadcast industry over the last 15 years, has a habit of making controversial
\ncomments, which often cause controversy.Earlier this year, McEnroe<\/a> made a controversial comment after the French Open final during the BBC\u2019s coverage that, in his opinion, the 14-time French Open winner will not start as a favourite while playing against Spain\u2019s Carlos Alcaraz or Italy\u2019s Jannik Sinner, even if he were playing at his peak. Those comments led to McEnroe receiving a lot of criticism, especially from
\nthe fans on social media.It seems that McEnroe has not learnt from that mistake and
\nmade another controversial comment, this time during the US Open. The incident took place during the quarterfinal between the former world number one, Serbia\u2019s Novak Djokovic<\/a>, and America\u2019s Taylor Fritz<\/a>. In that contest, Djokovic came out
\non top in four sets with a score of 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.<\/p>\n

During the match, McEnroe, who was working as a
\ncommentator for ESPN, made a controversial comment about an older member of
\nthe staff who was trying to help the players. McEnroe said \u201cthank you, grandma\u201d
\nwhen the lady appeared on screen and further went on to say that it was a \u2018good
\ntime for her age group\u2019. Those comments did not go down well with the lady who
\nwas later identified as Susan Perkins.<\/p>\n

Another controversial commentPerkins spoke to Sportkeeda<\/a>, where she lambasted McEnroe for making those comments. Perkins stated that those comments coming from a
\nformer world number one were \u2018dismissing\u2019 and highlighted that she felt she was \u2018mocked\u2019
\nby McEnroe. Perkins noted that she was just \u2018doing her job\u2019 and said comments such as \u2018grandma\u2019 were \u2018hurtful’ rather than ‘humorous\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to tell John McEnroe that his comments such
\nas \u201cgood time for her age group\u201d and \u201cgrandma\u201d felt dismissive and hurtful
\nrather than humorous,\u201d said Perkins. \u201cI was simply doing my job delivering a
\nrestrung racket to a player. His job is to comment on the players, not other
\npeople working on the court. It is one thing to jest, it\u2019s another to
\nstereotype someone based on age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perkins further went on to highlight that she has been working at the tennis court for the last 20 years and that she loved \u2018every minute of it\u2019 until this year. Perkins stated that after hearing McEnroe\u2019s comment, she did not even want to go out on the court, in fear that someone would say something similar about her. Perkins<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked at the US Open for years and spent that time
\nsupporting the sport with pride and professionalism, yet those comments made me
\nfeel invisible and mocked,\u201d said Perkins. \u201cI have worked as a court attendant
\nfor the last 20 years, starting when my own children were ball persons. I enjoy
\nthe sport of tennis and give up my two weeks vacation in August to work there. I
\nhave loved every minute of this up until this year. After McEnroe\u2019s comments, I
\ndid not even want to go out onto the court, afraid that he might say more
\nderogatory things about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perkins stated that she was \u2018embarrassed\u2019 to walk back on
\nthe court and highlighted that she is a \u2018professional woman\u2019 and that such
\ncomments \u2018greatly affected\u2019 her ability to perform her duties. \u201cI was
\nconstantly looking up into the ESPN booth,\u201d said Perkins. \u201cIn addition, I am a
\nprofessional woman who works as a therapist during the year. I was embarrassed
\nto return back to work after the tournament, worried what people would say
\nafter hearing what was said about me on the court. This has greatly affected my
\nability to do my job, both on and off the court.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former world number one John McEnroe has landed himself in hot water after an unwanted comment towards one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-127396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}