ESPN's Coverage of Australian Open Men's Championship is Most-Watched in 13 Years

ESPN's audience for both the Women's and Men's Championships at the Australian Open - where all-time legends were on both sides of the net - was the largest since each event moved to a 3 a.m. ET time slot from prime time (2005 for the men, 2009 for the women). The 18th Major Championship in Roger Federer's career, Sunday at the Australian Open, garnered the largest total audience for the event - an average of 1,133,000 viewers - since 2004, a year before the move to an overnight (3 a.m. ET) time slot in 2005. The audience was more than double the average for last year (up 107% from 547,000), Novak Djokovic defeating Andy Murray.

ESPN's TV audience for the 35th meeting between Federer and Rafael Nadal - whom many consider the two finest men's players of the Open Era - of 1,085,000 (based on a 0.7 rating) was also the most since the match aired in prime time on Saturday nights, and more than double the 2016 audience. The audience on WatchESPN was up 140% - 48,000 vs. 20,000.

The historic matchup of the Williams Sisters in the early hours of Saturday - Serena Williams defeating her sister Venus for an Open Era record 23rd Major title - drew a total audience of 953,000 viewers, up 37% from last year's match between Serena and Angelique Kerber. It was the largest audience for the event since it moved to an overnight time slot in 2009. The TV audience of 926,000 (based on a 0.6 rating) was 36% larger than the 2016 audience. The audience on WatchESPN was up 59% - 27,000 vs. 17,000.

The "retro" championship matchups - each living up to their billing - concluded what has been called "the greatest tennis Grand Slam event in history." Both matches - in fact, the entire tournament - are available on demand on WatchESPN. Over the course of two weeks, ESPN aired more than 100 hours of live television with 1,400 more on WatchESPN covering every match - men's women's, doubles, juniors and wheelchair - and each match is available for 30 days after its conclusion.

Tennis has been part of ESPN since its first week on the air, providing numerous memorable moments from around the world, but it has never been as important as today, with the unprecedented position of presenting three of the sports Major events from start to finish (Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open, with exclusivity at the latter two).

Image courtesy of ESPN

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