Picture Credit: Twitter
The Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios, who is known to be quite a brash and outspoken personality, poked fun at the £205,000 payout to John McEnroe for commentary in Wimbledon this year, in response to a fan, who was seemingly shocked at the high number. The 28-year-old also revealed what he would ask the organisers to pay, if he made it to the final at SW19, especially after doing the same in 2022.
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), who had employed the 64-year-old American for the two-week Championship gig, paid him somewhere between £205,000 and £209,000, as per their annual report about employee salaries. According to the Mirror, the seven-time Grand Slam is the highest paid employee for the BBC on a pro rata basis.
Also Read: Naomi Osaka beats Virat Kohli in the list of highest paid Asian sportspersons in 2023
In a report from the Sunday Times, an insider was quoted as saying this about John McEnroe’s gig with the BBC, “He is one of the most popular and respected pundits in tennis, and he provides a unique perspective to our coverage.”
Notably, when TheTennisTalker tweeted, “John McEnroe paid £205,000 by BBC for 2 weeks work at Wimbledon. More like 20 hours work..... shocking. Then imagine how much he got paid for the other TV USA TV Channels over that fortnight too?? Probably a lot more than that!,” Nick Kyrgios responded in a hilarious manner, with a tweet, which read, “At least the players get paid what they are supposed to.”
After taking a dig at John McEnroe’s earnings at Wimbledon, the Australian tennis player didn’t stop. Nick Kyrgios, who got a payday of £1,050,000 for reaching the Championships’ final in 2022, talked about how he would demand more money from the organisers for a two-week gig than what he had earned prior.
Moreover, the 28-year-old will be playing alongside Frances Tiafoe and others, in the Laver Cup in September this year for Team World, which is ironically captained by John McEnroe. They will be taking on Team Europe captained by Bjorn Borg, who will be leading players like Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas, among others.
