A new era? Women’s US Open final dragged on more than Djokovic

More and more, gender equality is being addressed not only in sport. Women’s earnings are often nowhere near as high as men’s. Some say rightly so, if only for the sake of ratings. However, women are not doing badly in tennis, and at the US Open their final match was even more watched than the men’s.

The U.S. Open has offered more than one interesting story. But the most compelling was the women’s grand slam finalists. Teenagers Emma Raducanu (18 years old) and Leylah Fernandez (19 years old) were fighting for their first Grand Slam title.

Among the men, world number two Daniil Medvedev was trying to do the same, facing Novak Djokovic in the final, who could be the first man in 52 years to dominate all Grand Slams in a calendar year.

If many expected the Djokovic vs. Medvedev clash to be a clearly more watchable event than the Raducanu vs. Fernandez clash, they were sorely mistaken.

In fact, ESPN published data showing that the women’s final of the US Open was watched by an average of 2.44 million viewers. At one point, there were as many as 3.4 million tennis fans in front of their TV screens.

This viewership is 37% higher than that earned by the final duel between Naomi Osaka and Victoria Azarenka last year.

A day later, Djokovic and Medvedev drew an average of 2.05 million viewers to their screens, with no more than 2.7 million watching the match at any one time.

It should be noted, however, that the men’s final struggled with the competition. On the same day, the new NFL season started for most teams. Still, the men’s US Open final drew 37% more viewers this year than the year before.

Source: Reuters, ESPN