US Open 2020 viewership fell by MASSIVE 45% vis-a-vis 2019 due to big stars' absence

Dominic Thiem's US Open 2020 win may have been a milestone for tennis, but it certainly didn't set any records for viewership. The Big Three's hold over tennis and tennis fans has become even more evident after the conclusion of the US Open 2020 tournament. Even with a pandemic that has most people bored and quarantined at home, the US Open could not record a rise in viewership this year. 

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US Open 2020 records massive fall in viewership

By most standards of tennis, this year's US Open was a historic one. Organised in the middle of a pandemic, the tournament became the first Grand Slam to be held without an audience this year. Considering that the organizers at the French Open 2020 have already announced plans for limited audiences to attend the tournament, the US Open might be the only one to hold that distinction this year or in the near future, should the situation across the globe start returning to normalcy.

The US Open also became the first Grand Slam in four years to be won by a men's singles player other than Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. It was the first time the trio have all been missing from the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam since Wimbledon in 2004. If anything, this rare moment could have been expected to attract more of an audience. But the numbers prove otherwise. 

In a report by Forbes, the US Open 2020 ratings were down 45% compared to 2019, as per the tournament's official broadcasters ESPN. The women's singles final between Naomi Osaka and Victoria Azarenka saw a 43% fall while the men's singles final between Dominic Thiem and Sascha Zverev had 48% lesser viewers as compared to last year's summit clash between Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev.

The majority of this fall has been attributed to the fact that some of tennis's biggest names were missing from the draw. Defending champion Bianca Andreescu, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer all chose to sit out the tournament for various reasons, while pre-tournament favourites Djokovic and Serena Williams, did not make it to the finals. 

The event also clashed with a number of other major sports events in the US such as the NBA and NHL playoffs and the start of the NFL season, which was a rare occurrence in American sports history.

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How much of a difference do the big names make?

The 2019 US Open women’s final with Serena Williams averaged 3.72 million viewers on ESPN. It was the most-watched match ever at the US Open since the Serena Williams-Venus Williams quarter-final in 2015, which saw 6.00 million viewers, and the most-watched final since the Serena Williams-Caroline Wozniacki clash in 2014, which averaged 4.50 million viewers according to ESPN/Nielsen. 

The men’s final this year had the lowest viewership numbers in the ESPN era. The 2015 US Open final with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer was the highest watched Men's singles final with over 3 million viewers. Last year's final with Rafael Nadal had almost 2.8 million views, double as compared to this year. 

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Image Credits: US Open website