BBC won’t take further action after Wimbledon final complaints

Wimbledon
A brilliant shot from Novak Djokovic

The BBC has had to field complaints of bias after their Wimbledon men’s singles final coverage drew the ire of some viewers.

In attempting to provide commentary on the incident where Djokovic smashed his racket into the net pole, Andrew Castle had described the 23-time Grand Slam winner’s actions as ‘understandable’.

It seems that these comments were the centre of many complaints with some feeling that Castle was showing favour to Djokovic.

While the BBC have revealed that feedback was shared with the relevant parties they will not take any further action against Castle or any members of the commentary team.

A counter-criticism is that complainants ignored Castle balancing his comments with context and explaining how dangerous the act of smashing a racket on court can be for both players and spectators.

Responding to a request for comment from The Express, a BBC statement read: “We’ve received complaints from people who felt our commentary favoured Novak Djokovic and/or condoned his behaviour after hitting the net post with his racket.

“While Andrew Castle highlighted that Djokovic’s anger and frustration was ‘understandable’ at such a crucial point in the match, it was also made clear that this behaviour is wrong, and that Djokovic rightly received a conduct violation for it.

“Andrew also highlighted that such behaviour can be dangerous, looking back at a similar instance with Djokovic, stating; ‘Disqualified at the US Open in 2020 after unintentionally hitting a line judge. That was a dangerous moment for a lot of reasons’.

It adds: “We recognise how these comments came across to some, however, and we’ve shared this with the programme team.

“Throughout the final, our team shared their analysis and praise for both players. They praised Alcaraz for such performances at such a young age, for the variety in his game, and Andrew did include particular praise of Alcaraz’s game too.”

Djokovic received an $8000 fine for the incident and has since apologised for his actions while stating an eagerness to move on.

In the fifth set of the match, the 36-year-old lost his temper after failing to break Alcaraz and losing his own service game soon after.

Due to the incident, umpire Tim Murphy promptly handed Djokovic a code violation after pulling him up earlier for a time violation.

The BBC hold the exclusive rights to broadcast Wimbledon in the United Kingdom.

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Novak Djokovic

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