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- John McEnroe has criticized Emma Raducanu after she retired from her 4th round Wimbledon match.
- Seven-time champion McEnroe said it looked like "it just got a bit too much" for the 18-year-old.
- Replying to McEnroe's criticisms, Piers Morgan then attacked Raducanu, saying she needs to "toughen up."
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Seven-time Wimbledon champion John McEnroe has criticized breakout star Emma Raducanu after she retired from her fourth-round match at the championships due to breathing difficulties.
Raducanu appeared to be struggling towards the end of the first set when she began frequently grabbing her stomach.
She lost the first set 6-4 before trailing 3-0 in the second at which point she called her trainer onto the court. After a period away from the court receiving medical treatment, it was announced she was not fit to continue.
In an Instagram statement on Tuesday, Raducanu said she had felt "dizzy" at the end of the first set, and was told not to continue after going off court.
"At the end of the first set, after some super intense rallies, I started to breathe heavily and felt dizzy. The medical team advised me not to continue and although it felt like the hardest thing in the world not to be able to finish my Wimbledon on the court, I was not well enough to carry on."
McEnroe, who won the Wimbledon men's singles competition in 1981, 1983 and 1984, said it looked as if it "got a little bit too much" for the 18-year-old.
Speaking as part of the BBC's coverage, McEnroe compared Raducanu's withdrawal to Naomi Osaka, who pulled out of the French Open and Wimbledon citing mental health struggles as the reason behind her decision.
"I feel bad for Emma, obviously. It appears it just got a little bit too much, as is understandable, particularly with what we've been talking about over the last six weeks with Osaka not even here," said McEnroe.
"How much can players handle? It makes you look at the guys that have been around and the girls for so long. How well they can handle it. Hopefully she'll learn from this experience."
"I don't think it helped that the previous match went as long as it did because it made her think about it more."
McEnroe faced pushback for the comments, including from Raducanu's opponent Aija Tomljanovic, who called them "very harsh."
After the Guardian published an article titled "John McEnroe slammed for comments over Emma Raducanu withdrawal," English broadcaster Piers Morgan then shamed Raducanu.
Quote-tweeting the article, Morgan - who has never played any sport to an elite level - said that Raducanu "couldn't handle the pressure" and told her to "toughen up."
Morgan, who in June attacked Naomi Osaka over her decision not to speak to the media at the French Open, said Raducanu should seek McEnroe's advice on how to "become a champion like he was" and to tell her fans to "stop abusing McEnroe."
He provided no evidence to show that Raducanu's fans are abusing the US tennis legend, and misspelled her name.
-Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 6, 2021
Morgan's tweet drew criticism from Andy Murray, Britain's greatest tennis player of the modern era, who described his words as "very harsh."
Murray went on to say that the timing of McEnroe's comments was "a bit off considering nobody had any clue what her issue was injury/illness/breathings issues etc at the time."