{"id":735317,"date":"2026-06-30T18:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/735317\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T18:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:25:08","slug":"bbc-wanted-andrew-castle-to-stay-past-2026-wimbledon-mens-final-wimbledon-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/735317\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC wanted Andrew Castle to stay past 2026 Wimbledon men\u2019s final | Wimbledon 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC\u2019s director of sport has said he wanted Andrew Castle to stay as part of Wimbledon\u2019s commentary team amid the fallout from the \u00adbroadcaster\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n

Alex Kay-Jelski confirmed that Castle, 62, had decided to quit the BBC<\/a> after being told that he was being demoted from lead commentator \u2013 and that this year\u2019s men\u2019s final would be his last.<\/p>\n

But Kay-Jelski said that Castle had \u201can absolutely brilliant innings\u201d and that he had wanted him to stay on in 2027 and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to get into private conversations,\u201d said Kay-Jelski. \u201cWe asked Andrew to stay, because we think he\u2019s excellent. He\u2019s been doing this for 20 years, and he took the \u00addecision that that\u2019s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also clarified that Castle was told by the BBC \u201cthis was going to be his last men\u2019s final\u201d, adding: \u201cI think he said this week that it was done face to face, done nicely, he\u2019s done an absolutely brilliant innings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week Castle admitted he had been hurt by the BBC\u2019s decision, telling the Telegraph<\/a>: \u201cAm I upset? Yeah, I was upset, and I will stay that way this year, knowing it\u2019s my last. But all good things come to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castle said he would have preferred for his final Wimbledon to be in 2027, to mark a quarter century of commentating for the BBC. \u201cIt would have been my 25th year,\u201d he added. \u201cBut who\u2019s bleating?\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked how he would approach the search for Castle\u2019s replacement, Kay-Jelski replied \u201cto go and get the best person\u201d regardless of their age or gender.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou asked there about age and gender, I don\u2019t ever look at that,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just not how my brain works, and it won\u2019t be how the team\u2019s brain works,\u201d he said. \u201cYou just look at who the best people are, sometimes the best person is X, sometimes the best person is Y.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see that with pundit lineups. You can have Laura Robson and Eugenie Bouchard. You can also have Tracy Austin, who probably knows more about tennis than all of us put together. I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s about male, female and age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kay-Jelski also revealed that Laura Robson would be adding analysis from courtside during matches, starting with Serena Williams\u2019s first round encounter against Maya Joint, the first time it has happened at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re adding more analysis,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s good insight for BBC Wimbledon viewers. It\u2019s something new, it\u2019s something different. I think we should just try stuff. We shouldn\u2019t be scared to try.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC\u2019s director of sport has said he wanted Andrew Castle to stay as part of Wimbledon\u2019s commentary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-735317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}