U.S. Open commentators are under fire after confusing Dionne Warwick with Gladys Knight last night during round two of the tournament.
“Gladys Knight?! That’s not even Gladys Day!”
— Stefan Simanowitz (@StefSimanowitz) September 1, 2022
Commentator mistakes Dionne Warwick for Gladys Knight at #USOpen yesterday’s tennis match between Serena Williams & Anett Kontaveit
Walk on by, Dionne! Walk on by! @dionnewarwick @MsGladysKnight https://t.co/Ova770xyJA
Mary Carillo and Chanda Rubin were behind the mic for ESPN during the third game of the first set when Warwick appeared on screen between points. Rubin says, “Got some more stars,” and Carillo replies, “Gladys Knight.” Rubin repeat’s the icon’s name followed by a “Hel-lo!” her male colleague says in confirmation.
Shortly after the match, Rubin went to social media to explain what happened during her alleged mistaken identity moment.
“Too bad I was initially looking at the court (where Auntie Gladys was in the stands) and not our program monitor that showed Ms. Dionne… mistake was immediately corrected [face palm emoji],” the broadcaster clarified in a comment of the viral video on Twitter.
It wasn’t the first time one celeb was mistaken for another during this year’s U.S. Open. During the first round match on Monday (Aug. 29), actress Laverne Cox was mistaken for Beyoncé.
On Wednesday (Aug. 31), there were a ton of other stars supporting Serena Williams' last U.S. Open. Golf superstar Tiger Woods, models Gigi and Bella Hadid, Oscar-winning director Spike Lee, Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour, Grammy-winning singer Seal, actress La La Anthony and many more were in attendance.
Last month, Serena Williams told Vogue that she would be “evolving away from tennis” after this year’s after this year's U.S. Open. Williams beat Danka Kovinic on Monday night (Aug. 29). The tennis icon returned on Wednesday for the second round where she won 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 against the No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit. Williams has advanced to the third round where she will play Ajla Tomljanovic on Friday (Sept. 2). Williams has won the U.S. Open six times.
Neither Gladys Knight nor Dionne Warwick has publicly addressed the incident. Although that did not stop fans on Twitter who were mad that icons were disrespected. Take a look at fans’ responses below:
