One year after Serena Williams’ final match, Coco Gauff seems poised to usher in the new era of American tennis — on the court and in the ratings.
Saturday’s Coco Gauff-Aryna Sabalenka US Open women’s final averaged a 1.9 rating and 3.42 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest audience on record for a women’s Grand Slam final on the ESPN family of networks. (Records are based on the full telecast window, as opposed to the match window.) ESPN has aired the singles finals of the US Open since 2015, Wimbledon since 2012 and Australian Open since 1984.
Gauff’s win increased 95% in ratings and 92% in viewership from Iga Swiatek-Ons Jabeur last year (1.0, 1.78M).
Compared to the previous women’s final to involve an American — Williams’ 2019 loss to Bianca Andreescu — ratings fell a tick (from 2.0) but viewership increased 6% (from 3.22M). Versus the previous women’s final won by an American, Sloane Stephens over Madison Keys in the all-American 2017 final, ratings jumped 61% (from 1.2) and viewership 85% (from 1.85M).
Keep in mind out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen viewership estimates prior to 2020.
Shifting to the men’s side of the bracket, Sunday’s Novak Djokovic-Daniil Medvedev men’s final averaged a 1.3 and 2.32 million — up 11% and 8% respectively from Carlos Alcaraz-Casper Ruud last year (1.15, 2.15M) and the most-watched men’s final since Rafael Nadal-Medvedev in 2019 (2.75M).
Going back to last week, the men’s and women’s semifinals averaged 1.9 million viewers — up 1% from last year and the highest average since moving to ESPN in 2015. Djokovic’s win over American Ben Shelton last Friday afternoon averaged a 0.9 and 1.52 million, up more than 50 percent from Ruud-Karen Khachanov in the same window last year (0.6, 1.00M). Medvedev’s upset of Alcaraz drew a 1.3 and 2.26 million in primetime, down 21% and 24% respectively from last year’s pairing of Alcaraz and American Frances Tiafoe (1.6, 2.96M).
The women’s semifinals (Gauff-Karolina Muchova and Sabalenka-Keys) averaged a 1.1 (+59%) and 1.83 million (+56%) the previous night.
The full US Open averaged a 0.6 rating and 1.0 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, down 17% from last year — when Williams’ swan song drove viewership (1.21M) — but up 25% from 2021.
