Carlos Alcaraz was part of history on Sunday when he beat Novak Djokovic to win the Wimbledon 2023 men’s singles final. Such was the intensity and quality of the final that it drew millions of viewers around the world. When it comes to the United States alone, it is believed that the match had the second highest viewership for a Wimbledon final in a decade on ESPN.
The final was so much of a blockbuster that even NBA star Steph Curry playing a celebrity golf tournament and winning in it could not attract as much viewership on the day. Alcaraz and Djokovic put on an intriguing display of tennis that had a rising star matching up to a legend of the game, making it a perfect recipe of sporting entertainment.
Carlos Alcaraz pulls in 3 times more viewers than Stephen Curry
This is a massive achievement for a 20-year-old sportsperson who has been on the ATP circuit for barely 3 years. According to Sports Media Watch, the Carlos Alcaraz vs Novak Djokovic Wimbledon final clocked as many as 3.2 million viewers with a 1.7 rating on ESPN. The marathon match lasted nearly 4 and a half hours, having started at 9 AM EST, which was the perfect Sunday morning for sports lovers in the United States. One of their games took an incredible 27 minutes to end, which is now considered as iconic in the tournament’s history.
On the other hand, the American Century Championships which Steph Curry headlined, gained just 1.44 million viewers on NBC. This is less than half of the Wimbledon final. Curry beat the likes of former American tennis star Mardy Fish, NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes and Joe Pavelski.
The Wimbledon final turned out to be the most watched on ESPN, with the second-best surprisingly being the MLB Sunday Night blockbuster between Houston and LA, which clocked 1.29 million viewers.
Second-most watched Wimbledon final in a decade
When it comes to the Wimbledon Championships alone in the USA, the highest viewership in a decade was seen in 2019 in the mega final between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. Both the players pushed each other so much to the physical and mental blink that it is the longest contest final across any event of all-time at the Championships, taking 4 hours and 57 minutes. On ESPN, it had clocked 3.83 million viewers, which is only 100,000 less than the famous 2012 final between Roger Federer and Andy Murray.
While this could indicate that Carlos Alcaraz is indeed the real deal to look forward to in tennis going ahead, star power alongside a solid matchup or rivalry will be vital going ahead for the sport. Interestingly, last year’s final between Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios only bagged 2.24 million viewers, perhaps because Rafael Nadal pulled out ahead of the semi-final against Kyrgios. As a result, Alcaraz will need equally solid rivals should he feature in a Wimbledon final again that could challenge the ratings of NBA, MLB, NFL, Golf and other popular American sports on a Sunday morning.
