Former German tennis player-turned-commentator Boris Becker was slammed as sexist after he passed comments about Hungarian tennis player Marton Fucsovics’ fiancée during his match against Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.

It all started on Wednesday, June 7, when Becker’s co-commentator John Inverdale chose to digress from on-court commentary during the match to point out Fucsovics’ fiancee, Anett Böszörményi. “If you’re a tennis player, it’s always good to have a partner called Anett,” he joked, to which Becker replied, “They do say they have the most beautiful women in Hungary. I wouldn’t know that, but she’s certainly very pretty.”

Who is Anett Böszörményi?

Böszörményi was born on August 12, 1990. Fucsovics and Böszörményi started dating in 2016. He proposed to her a year later and the pair got engaged on November 30, 2017. She is a renowned chef and became popular after she took part in a cooking competition show, ‘Konyhafonok’ in 2018.

Although not much is known about Böszörményi, she does keep updating her Instagram page, which has over 12,000 followers, with pictures of herself and her fiance. Both of them love to travel and explore different new cities. Going by her social media feed, the pair has visited an array of places including Sydney, France, and the Maldives.

Boris Becker slammed

The pair’s comments on Böszörményi were condemned by Stephanie Hillborne, chief executive of Women in Sport, who said that both Becker and Inverdale were disrespectful and inappropriate with their comments on live television. “When two men are comfortable talking about women in this way, never mind on live TV, it shows there is still more to do,” she said.

Many of the social media users also had similar opinions about Becker’s comments on Böszörményi, saying that he and his co-commentator did not focus enough on the game. “I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me why Inverdale gets to commentate on a Wimbledon quarter-final. Bloke talks nothing but utter nonsense,” one tennis fan wrote. Another said, “His joke about ‘Anett’ was pretty funny. Boris crossed the line. Why he is even on the BBC I do not know.”

A third commented, “Boris Becker and John Inverdale talking about Hungarian women being the best looking women in world during Novak Djokovic v Marton Fucsovics isn’t really the analysis I was expecting on Wimbledon Centre Court.”

“Unbelievable sexist drivel from Becker. Appalling and not relevant to analysis during a tennis match #Wimbledon #casualsexism,” said one. Another said, “@Wimbledon terrible sexist and plain boring commentary from inverdale and Becker. Hope it’s their last year with you. Time for a change.”

Some defended Boris Becker

BBC has spoken up in support of Becker with a spokesperson stating, “Boris Becker made a light-hearted comment that was not intended to cause offense.”

There were also people on Twitter who thought that Becker did nothing wrong with his commentary. “@TheBorisBecker Be yourself mate. You have done nothing wrong here. This is the problem of the http://world.we.live in. It is cool to say you worship the devil, but can’t call a woman pretty,” one of them said while another noted, “What Boris Becker said was very appropriate and quite complimentary. Congratulations Boris don’t pay attention to the idiots, you did okay.”