Roger Federer’s Wimbledon tribute snubbed by BBC as viewers left livid

BBC viewers were left furious on Tuesday as the broadcasting giant opted to stick with coverage of Carlos Alcaraz rather than switching to Roger Federer’s tribute on Centre Court. The Swiss won eight men’s titles at Wimbledon and his return to the All England Club was hotly anticipated by those in attendance and watching on from home.

Federer’s tribute, which included a short montage before he emerged onto Centre Court to a huge standing ovation, coincided with Alcaraz’s first-round match against Jeremy Chardy.

Alcaraz came into this year’s tournament as the top seed and world No 1, but many viewers were left upset that BBC2 didn’t ditch their coverage of the Spaniard once Federer’s ceremony got underway. Others were irritated that an ‘overbloated‘ news programme on BBC1 prevented the broadcaster from showing both simultaneously.

Many took to social media to voice their anger, including @EmmaTrueman161, who wrote: “So now we can’t watch the Roger Federer tribute on Centre Court? What is going on?”

Meanwhile, @obbsie added: “Was in the kitchen and heard that that great gentleman and tennis legend Roger Federer was being presented with a special award on the Centre Court. I flew into the front room; BBC1 the news, BBC2 a match between two individuals I’d never heard of.”

A recording of the tribute was later shown on BBC Sport‘s Twitter account, although many were aggrieved that they could not watch it live on terrestrial channels. Instead it was only available online on BBC iPlayer before being shown on BBC Two over an hour later during a pause in play in the third set of Alcaraz’s match.

However, Federer refuses to outright concede that Djokovic is the greatest male player of all time. “I don’t know,” he told Swiss publication Tages-Anzeiger when asked whether his former ‘Big Three’ rival was now top of the pile.

“What’s best, winning Wimbledon at 17 like [Boris] Becker or Roland Garros at 36 like Novak? I don’t know. As long as Rafa [Nadal] plays, you can’t really answer. Then there are some records that can’t be broken.”