I love myself some good tennis announcers to add color, perspective and insight to a match. So, it got me thinking the other day, “who’s my favorite announcer, and why?” After a long deliberation, here’s my ranking for tennis announcers, and the reasons I think they are great. And you guessed right, they are all former players!

5. Mary Carillo

I love Mary Carillo, she’s been announcing matches ever since I can remember. What I love about Mary is that she can easily go from calling a women’s match to a men’s match. She understands the difference in the men’s and women’s game and provides the right insight and angles into what’s happening. Plus, she has a massive inventory of player insight that she sprinkles in. It makes listening to her broadcast an absolute joy.

4. Darren Cahill

I love Darren because he’s so tactical and strategic. He not only knows the mechanics of the game and can identify what’s happening in players heads on the court real time. And tennis is all about what’s going on in a player’s head.

3. Martina Navratilova

Navratilova is the straight shooter. She tells it like it is. She’ll have comments like “She’s not working hard, what does she expect?” I think I can recall calling certain players “lazy” and “out of shape” while calling matches. She has the right to say those things because Navratilova was probably the most disciplined player in the history of the game. No pain no gain when it comes to her, and it comes across in her broadcasts – I love it.

2. John McEnroe

I love Johnny Mac because he’s so interesting to listen to. He’s got player insights, talks about the psychology of the game a lot as well, but with a different angle than Darren does. John will be calling a match and say things like, “you gotta believe that loss at Roland Garros last year is weighing in his mind right about now” Great stuff!

1. Jim Courier

I never thought Jim would be my favorite announcer because he was never one of my favorite players. That being said, I think he has elements from all the above announcers. Additionally, I like Courier’s easy-going personality and understated humor. He knows the mental game, he’s not afraid to call them out like Navratilova, and he can talk mechanics and strategy like Cahill.

So, there you have it, those are my favorite announcers. What are yours? Do you disagree with me?