ESPN Comes Under Fire for Snubbing Djokovic, Rybakina and Swiatek in Wimbledon 2024 Promo

The Wimbledon is arguably the most popular and hyped Grand Slam of the year. Despite the official promotional video released a few weeks ago, ESPN came out with a promo clip for its own broadcast very recently in the United States. While the video has done a good job of marketing the tournament in the States, it missed out on a few important details that has angered tennis lovers on social media such as the absence of Novak Djokovic.

ESPN’s new clip for the Wimbledon 2024 Championships has not done justice to a few important tennis players. While this may look like a casual oversight, there’s more precedent and history behind it.

The promo shows the iconic Tower Bridge to start, followed by a shot featuring Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, which then transitioned to the Centre Court. It shows Wimbledon’s famous strawberry & cream, and finally, it depicts rushes of current star men’s players like Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Among women, it shows Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, Aryna Sabalenka, Marketa Vondrousova, and Ons Jabeur. Within a 30-second clip, the video packs in enough famous players. But it does miss out on 3 of the biggest names in tennis – Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina.

ESPN has made sure there are enough American players in the clip (3 – Fritz, Tiafoe, Gauff) to generate the US audiences’ interest. But missing out on Djokovic, a 7-time Wimbledon champion, almost doesn’t make sense.

Iga Swiatek was shown for barely a second. She is a huge name too, who will enter as the No.1 seed in the women’s singles event. She is also the World’s No.1 women’s player.

Also, Elena Rybakina won the 2022 Wimbledon Championships. Their exclusion or less air-time from the clip fetched strong reactions from tennis fans online.

Upon careful observation, one can witness a common trend in the exclusion of players like Swiatek, Djokovic, and Rybakina. Questions have once again risen about the tennis establishment’s apparent bias towards the Western bloc.

Was Novak Djokovic Right in Blaming the Establishment for Bias Against Him?

Just a few months ago, during the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic accused the establishment compromising of administrators and marketers, of not favoring him as much as the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for a large part of his career. Djokovic said that since he isn’t from a nation in the ‘Western bloc’ of nations such as those in the Western Europe, UK and the United States, he didn’t appeal to them as someone marketable.

This argument is finding more authenticity by the day, as Djokovic, Rybakina, and Swiatek are all from Eastern Bloc nations. Djokovic is from Serbia, Swiatek is from Poland, whereas Rybakina is Kazakhstani, which is in Central Asia.

However, their exclusion from the clip isn’t because they aren’t marketable in the US. The ESPN clip isn’t a sponsor promo, but instead something to broadcast the tournament in the States. Nevertheless, this little mishap could’ve easily been avoided.