After a glittering tennis career, legendary player Jim Courier turned to commentating for channels like Tennis Channel, USA Network, NBC Sports, etc. before moving to Channel 9. A veteran at broadcasting, Courier has played a major role in keeping the Australian Open exciting over the years. This time too, he and his panel of Channel 9 broadcasters are keeping the tournament lively.
On Thursday night, Courier decided to up the fun with Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner. Sinner, who has been one of the firm candidates for winning the Majors, per some predictions, got into a healthy banter with Courier regarding his tennis racquet.
After using Sinner’s ‘Baywatch’ body joke as a jumping point, where the 22-year-old Italian wished to have a body like those stars, Courier questioned him about his racquet. When asked Sinner about the weight and length of his racquet, the Italian initially laughed off and refused to answer. Courier finally caught him on his false answers and the two jokingly ended their interview. The audience was, nevertheless, entertained.
Headlining the Channel 9 commentary panel, Jim Courier is accompanied by John McEnroe, Jelena Dokic, Todd Woodbridge, Lleyton Hewitt, Sam Stosur, Dylan Alcott, Casey Dellacqua, Sam Smith, John Millman, Alicia Molik, Brenton Speed and Peter Psaltis. Some off-court reports are also being done by Clint Stanway, Danika Mason, Georgie Parker, and Marlee Silva.
After a spectacular tennis career and a short-lived music career, John McEnroe turned to tennis commentary. Having done the job for TV Networks such as ESPN, CBS, NBC, and USA Network, he is now part of Channel 9. Known for his straightforward and non-nonsense reporting, McEnroe’s words always bring an added value to the AO commentary. Samantha Stosur is a former US Open champion from Australia, who retired as recently as 2023. The Majors last year was her final tournament. She has also joined the commentary panel.
Lleyton Hewitt is a former World No. 1 from Australia, whose rise in tennis career was in 2001-2002 when he won the US Open and the Wimbledon in back-to-back years. He went into retirement in 2016, came out of retirement, and is now finally commentating. Todd Woodbridge has been a commentator and broadcaster for nearly two decades now. He worked with Seven Networks for 12 years before becoming a permanent at Channel 9.
A missing name from Australian Open Commentators
Channel 9, through the Wide World of Sports, is covering the Australian Open this time. Moreover, 9Now is the official live-streaming partner of AO, which is free of cost for any Australians to watch. However, with such a wide team, dedicated to making commentary fun, one name is missing from their roster.
Daren Cahill, who has been a tennis analyst for a long time, is missing out due to another important commitment. After his playing days were over, Cahill joined ESPN as an analyst. In the meantime, he was also interested in picking up coaching gigs. After becoming a Channel 9 commentator, he was expected to return this season, but he couldn’t due to his coaching responsibilities.
Cahill is the coach of Sinner, which he has been for nearly two years now. Sinner has qualified for the Fourth Round of the AO, set to play against Russian-American player Karen Khachanov. The other decided Fourth Round draw is Taylor Fritz vs Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Novak Djokovic vs Ben Shelton, Alex de Minaur vs Sebastian Korda, Grigor Dimitrov vs Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev vs Casper Ruud, and Carlos Alcaraz vs Tommy Paul are some of the other Fourth Round clashes that might happen.
