The American contingent, especially from the men’s singles draw, performed well at the US Open 2024. While Tommy Paul and Brandon Nakashima made it to the fourth round of the Grand Slam, Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz marched on to the semifinal and finals, respectively. One would naturally assume that an All-American semifinal would increase the fans’ interest. However, the TV ratings tell a different story.
The Tiafoe–Fritz semifinal was an entertaining clash that lasted 3 hours and 18 minutes. While Big Foe got a 2-1 lead, the Californian made a stunning comeback to defeat his compatriot 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
While the Arthur Ashe Stadium was packed with loud supporters, the contest had merely a 1.78 million average viewership. For context, Tiafoe’s 2022 semifinal encounter against Carlos Alcaraz had an average viewership of 2.96 million.
The All-American battle failed to eclipse even the number from the Alcaraz-Daniil Medvedev semifinal from the US Open 2023 which reached an average viewership of 2.26 million. This goes to show that American players’ success does not result in garnering more eyeballs and that top-ranked players on the ATP Tour are still preferred to watch by the crowd.
The beginning of the 2024-2025 NFL season was one of the biggest reasons behind the dip in the viewership. Around the same time as the semifinal, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers played their season openers. Considering the NFL contest was extremely closely fought (the Eagles won 34-29), the tennis match witnessed competition.
With the global megastars having a huge influence on tennis enthusiasts, the elimination of Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic early in the major tournament also contributed to the disappointing numbers.
The US Open did try its best to market the games throughout the event with the usage of quirky social media activities. While they did receive appreciation for their effort on these platforms, it didn’t result in fans tuning into the games.
