Tennis legend John McEnroe made quite the entrance during TNT Sport's coverage of the French Open final, as he was humorously called out for his tardiness when the broadcast began with an empty chair meant for him.

Host Rachel Stringer kicked off the show by introducing pundits Tim Henman and Chris Evert, leaving a noticeable gap where McEnroe should have been seated.

McEnroe was nowhere to be found at the start, leading Stringer to inform viewers that the American icon was running late. Evert quipped that McEnroe is "always late" while Henman declared that they had to proceed without the missing star, playfully ribbing their absent colleague.

The broadcast had already moved into discussing the showdown between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz when McEnroe finally appeared, greeted by enthusiastic cheers from the audience.

However, McEnroe contested the notion that he was late, clarifying that his agreement with TNT was to cover the match itself. He humorously claimed he was actually early since the final was still an hour away.

Henman teased McEnroe about the team having "waited hours" for him, prompting the 1984 Roland Garros finalist to retort: "That's your problem!"

McEnroe, 66, then elaborated: "We don't want to get into the weeds on this reasoning, there's an insinuation that I am coming in late. But the truth is that I was only asked to do the match, which I believe I am an hour and 10 minutes early for.

"Because I wanted to lay it all on the line for this, I was on the way and all of a sudden someone called from TNT UK and they said 'hey where's John?' and I am stuck in traffic because there is a marathon on, so I came later than I thought. I was planning on being here at 1.15pm just in case anyone needed me.

"Which clearly you don't! You have got Chrissy and Tim, my brother Andre [Agassi], Jim [Courier] who came over here, I mean come on."

When prompted whether he had prepped for a match, McEnroe confidently responded: "Since when have I not done my homework?".

Furthermore, McEnroe sent heartfelt regards to music icon Billy Joel after his recent health revelation: "I wanted to just say quickly, I was watching TV pretty late last night and I was watching a documentary about Billy Joel.

"So I want to wish him a speedy recovery from what has happened with him, he has had to cancel a show, one of the greatest performers ever."