"We need Carlos Alcaraz to save tennis from boring Italian"- Fans react to US Open 2024 men's & women's singles finals recording lower views than 2023

The 2024 US Open finals saw lower ratings compared to previous years, with fans citing several reasons, including a scheduling clash with the NFL and unexpected participants in the final.

The women's singles final between Jessica Pegula and Aryna Sabalenka averaged approximately 1.8 million views across ESPN and ESPN+. This is a significantly lower number as it is down 53% from Coco Gauff’s win over Sabalenka last year. Further, it is also down 10% from the 2022 final between Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur.

Meanwhile, the men's final also averaged close to 1.8 million viewers across ABC and ESPN+. The ratings were down 31% from the final last year between Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev.

The underwhelming rating recorded by the US Open finals was posted on Reddit.

Terrible ratings for the US Open finals byu/Expensive_Window_538 intennis

Fans argued for multiple reasons due to which the ratings may have fallen from the previous years.

"The US doesn’t care about tennis like that. I wish we did but we don’t. These numbers are not the least bit surprising and save last year’s numbers showing slightly better numbers because yeah Coco is gonna draw more than Pegula and Djokovic is Djokovic," one fan wrote.

Another fan reasoned on the same lines, commenting that a more popular finalist would have done the trick. They wrote:

"I mean yes the men's final featured an American but it was the wrong American from a ratings perspective( women's final last year also featured an American)... Tiafoe would have been more popular to watch. However, casual crowds arent completely caught up on who sinner is compared to Djokovic extending his slam count and sinner -fritz was always a far far far worse match on paper compared to the GOAT vs a former US open champ."

Comment byu/Expensive_Window_538 from discussion intennis

Some fans felt that a schedule clash with the NFL was the problem.

"NFL is king in the US," one fan wrote.

"Good luck beating the NFL, they’d be better off scheduling the finals for Tuesday and Wednesday," another fan wrote.

Here are a few more fan reactions to the US Open finals' low ratings.

"We need Alcaraz to save tennis from the boring Italian," one fan wrote.

Comment byu/Expensive_Window_538 from discussion intennis

"TBH, It was clear who would win from early in the match so there really wasn't much reason to watch," another fan wrote.

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The US Open creates attendance records despite a low finals rating

The Arthur Ashe Stadium. (Image: Getty)

For the first time, over a million spectators visited the US Open's home, USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. 1,048,669 fans attended the Grand Slam over three weeks. During the two-week main draw alone, attendance hit a record high of 832,640.

The inaugural seven-day US Open Fan Week attracted over 219,000 visitors. Multiple events were organized during the week which featured some of the top tennis stars, past and present, including Novak Djokovic, Andre Agassi, and Venus Williams.