All You Need to Know About the Commentators for Wimbledon Championships 2023

The Wimbledon Championships are just a few days away. With qualifiers in full swing, the action on grass has become intense. As the majority of the viewers will watch from the comfort of their homes, they will be accompanied by commentators for matches. Each broadcaster will have a different commentary team, with veterans returning to cover their sport. 

All the BBC commentators heading the 2023 Wimbledon coverage

Sue Barker was a legendary commenter and part of the BBC team. But she retired from her role and stepped back from covering the sport. In her stead, Clare Balding, an English broadcast journalist and author, will be the featured woman for the BBC’s coverage of Wimbledon.

Former Wimbledon champions John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Pat Cash, and others will join Balding in the studio. The four players have won the Wimbledon’s singles trophy for a combined 19 times.

Tim Henman, Tracy Austin, Annabel Croft, Johanna Konta, Anne Keothavong, and Sania Mirza will also help in covering the oldest slam. There were quite a few speculations about the Wimbledon legend Roger Federer also joining the commentary team, but he is not a part of the official coverage team.

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Here are the commentators for ESPN during the 2023 Wimbledon Championships

ESPN also announced their commentary team that will cover the third slam of the year. Joining the ESPN team is Chris Evert, three-time Wimbledon champion; Brad Gilbert, former coach of Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick; and Patrick McEnroe, brother of John McEnroe and U.S. Davis Cup captain from 2001 to 2010.

Along with the legendary tennis personalities, others like Pam Shriver, Rennae Stubbs, Chris Fowler, Darren Cahill, Cliff Drysdale, and Sam Gore are also on the team. Chris McKendry will serve as the host of the tournament. Jeremy Schaap will serve as a reporter for the second year in a row. Luke Jensen, Jason Goodall, Mary Joe Fernandez, Alexandra Stevenson, and James Blake will serve as analysts for the championships. 

AI joins traditional commentators for a modern twist at the Grand Slam

While Wimbledon is known for upholding its tradition, it will introduce an entirely new prospect to its coverage. An AI commentator will also join the coverage team for BBC. Along with John McEnroe and Andrew Castle, an AI bot will also provide coverage for the championship.

Key game moments will be described by an AI voice, with subtitles that spectators can switch on or off. The AI was taught the language of tennis and researched various phrases and vocabulary in order to make it as similar to the real-life commentators as possible.

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The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), which organizes Wimbledon, have partnered up with the American multinational technology corporation, IBM, in an effort to provide AI commentary for the matches played away from Wimbledon’s main courts, which currently feature live human analysis.

The SW19 commentary team of Sky Sports 

As the mainstream media channels entice viewers with their team, Sky Sports is not far behind. The British sports channel will house Gigi Salmon along with Martina Navratilova who will help out the British channel along with BBC.

Following her are Tim Henman, Jo Konta, Laura Robson, Jamie Murray, Feliciano Lopez, Marion Bartoli, Karthi Gnanasegaram, Emma Paton and Jonathan Overend will all help with the coverage of Wimbledon 2023.