The BBC has dropped John Inverdale from anchoring its nightly Wimbledon coverage, two years after he sparked a storm for making sexist comments about women’s champion Marion Bartoli.
Inverdale’s position presenting the nightly highlights show has been handed to Clare Balding, who took over his Radio 5 Live Wimbledon presenting duties last year.
The 57-year-old has not been dropped from the BBC’s Wimbledon coverage completely, he will still work as part of the corporation’s commentating team.
In 2013, the BBC was forced to apologise after Inverdale suggested French player Marion Bartoli was “never going to be a looker” on Radio 5 Live, shortly after she defeated Sabine Lisicki to win the women’s final.
“I just wonder if her dad did say to her when she was 12, 13, 14 maybe ‘listen, you are never going to be, you know, a looker’,” he said in a pre-match interview with commentator Lindsay Davenport. “You are never going to be somebody like a Sharapova, you’re never going to be 5ft 11, you’re never going to be somebody with long legs, so you have to compensate for that. You are going to have to be the most dogged, determined fighter that anyone has ever seen on the tennis court if you are going to make it, and she kind of is.”
The BBC received more than 700 complaints about the incident, while an apologetic Inverdale partly blamed his jibes on hayfever.
Earlier this year the BBC was forced to clarify a slip-up when Inverdale used the phrase “rose-cunted glasses” in Radio 5 Live’s Cheltenham coverage.
“John Inverdale will take up a new role on TV commentary duties at this year’s championship and we are looking forward to having him as part of the team,” said a BBC spokesman.
Balding turned to Twitter to reveal that she was “sad” not to be returning to Radio 5 Live for this year’s tournament but that it was for “a good reason”.
She is taking over a new-look BBC2 highlights show, with Today at Wimbledon reinvented as Wimbledon 2Day, which will be shot with a live audience.
“The introduction of Wimbledon 2Day, presented by Clare Balding, will provide a fresh new look for the highlights show and continue to develop the ‘today at the games’ brand which Clare presented at both the Sochi Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014,” said a BBC spokesman.
The 44-year old’s star has been in the ascendency since the London 2012 Olympics, where her warmth, enthusiasm and professionalism led her to be labelled a “national treasure”.
Sad not to be doing 5 Live at Wimbledon this year but it's for a good reason: http://t.co/L1FLAAFMaw pic.twitter.com/LlAdUOcvUO
— Clare Balding (@clarebalding) June 9, 2015
Sue Barker will anchor the live TV coverage with a commentary lineup including John McEnroe, Tim Henman, Martina Navratilova, Pat Cash, Lindsay Davenport and Richard Krajicek.
The BBC has also brought in Andy Roddick, while Justine Henin joins the Radio 5 Live team.
Henin said: “Wimbledon has produced a lot of memories for me and it’s great to be able to give something to the listeners.”
“I’m honoured to join the BBC team for Wimbledon,” said Roddick. “The championships will always have a special place in my heart, and I’m excited to come back to cover them.”
Andy Murray will be writing a column for the BBC Sport website, which will include behind-the-scenes post-match, and a quickfire video, The Murray Minute, in which he will answer fans’ questions.
The issue of sexism in tennis reared its head at this year’s Australian Open when a male presenter asked Canada’s 20 year-old Eugenie Bouchard to “give us a twirl” in an on-court interview.
“It was very unexpected,” she said at her post-match news conference. “I don’t know, an old guy asking you to twirl. It was funny.”
