Okay, the 2024 U.S. Open may not have ended with some kind of historic Big 3 battle for a Grand Slam title that tennis fans were spoiled by over the past two decades. But don’t be fooled by Sunday’s conclusion; this U.S. Open was incredible.
It produced worthy champions in top-ranked Jannik Sinner on the men’s side and now three-time Grand Slam winner Aryna Sabalenka in the women’s event. The men’s tournament delivered the longest match in U.S. Open history, as Dan Evans came back from 0-4, 15-40 down in the fifth set to win a first-round marathon over Karen Khachanov in five hours and 35 minutes. There were plenty of other amazing matches, as well: Frances Tiafoe vs. Ben Shelton, Lorenzo Musetti vs. Miomir Kecmanovic, Jessica Pegula vs. Karolina Muchova in the semis, and Sabalenka vs. Pegula in the final, just to name a few.
There were also controversies (news of Sinner’s positive steroid test broke just a few days before the tournament began and whole host of late-night–or early-morning–finishes were once again met with harsh criticism), viral moments (highlighted by Yulia Putintseva sulking as her stationary figure watched balls thrown to her by a ballgirl bounce by her one after the other), and shocking upsets (Botic van de Zandschulp beat Carlos Alcaraz in round two, Alexei Popyrin knocked out Novak Djokovic in round three).
Speaking of those late finishes, Evans and Khachanov weren’t the only record setters at this year’s U.S. Open. The fourth-round tilt between Qinwen Zheng and Donna Vekic–a rematch of the Paris Olympics gold-medal match–marked the latest women’s finish in event history at 2:15 am. Alexander Zverev vs. Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the third round ended at 2:35 am, the second-latest finish ever at the U.S. Open–trailing only the memorable 2022 quarterfinal between Sinner and Alcaraz that ended at 2:50 am.
It was a wild fortnight that was enjoyed to an especially great extent by the host nation, no matter that Pegula and Taylor Fritz came up one match short of glory. Fritz, who lost to Sinner 6-3, 6-4, 7-5, became the first American man to reach the U.S. Open singles final since 2006 and the first to reach any major singles final since 2009. Tiafoe made a return trip to the semifinals at Flushing Meadows, while Tommy Paul and Brandon Nakashima advanced to the fourth round. Emma Navarro took down defending champion Coco Gauf in an all-American thriller on the 23-year-old’s way to her first slam semi. In mixed doubles, Taylor Townsend and the retiring Donald Young made an improbable run to the championship match.
For a full 14 days there was extreme entertainment all around the hallowed grounds of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. And patrons were there to witness it all in record-setting numbers.
Opening Day drew the biggest single-day crowd in U.S. Open history at 74,641. The day-session crowd of 42,886 was the second-highest day-session attendance of all time, while the night-session crowd of 31,775 set a new record. The event as a whole surpassed one million attendees for the first time ever and the 1,048,669 total marked an eight-percent increase from 2023.
Those thousands–er, millions–of fans were blessed with basically perfect weather basically from start to finish. The first 12 days of the tournament were rain free and–by the usual standards of late August and early September in New York City–pleasant in temperature. It didn’t start raining until the final weekend, and by then the only matches being played were on courts with roofs.
Aside from asking for just one more win from both Pegula and Fritz, the USTA surely could not be happier with the event it put on over the past fortnight. The 2024 U.S. Open was an epic one, capping off the 2024 Grand Slam tennis season in style.
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can’t wait til next year!
The US Open men’s Final between Jannik Sinner and Taylor Fritz was the least watched men’s Final since 2020.
It averaged 1.8 million viewers across ABC (1.67M) and ESPN+
This is down 31% from last year’s Final.
Important to note the Final aired 2 hours earlier and competed with NFL games, which combined to average more than 30 million viewers on FOX and CBS.
The women’s Final between Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula averaged 1.8 million viewers across ABC (1.62M) and ESPN+
This is down 53% from last year’s women’s Final between Coco Gauff vs Aryna Sabalenka and also down 10% from 2022.
End of an era?
Source: The Tennis Letter (Twitter X)
Often wondered what would happen when the big 3’s careers ended. Looks like it’s this.
Though am surprised at the decline as two Americans were in the finals. Tennis certainly a minority sport in the UK. Wimbledon momentarily spikes a lot of interest but the BBC coverage was awful this year, so perhaps even that’ll fade.
Football is the name of the game, here anyway.
It’s still seen as an elitest sport
Yes, and the LTA doesn’t help either.
But in the USA?
Hello Margot and Big Al,
How are you bracket troopers doing?
The final in Guadalajara has not happened yet, but we have all had bad luck with the last two WTA brackets. Call in a three-way tie in Guadalajara without any of us being able to guess the last four. It seemed so easy when I picked last week.
It’s late in the day where I am, which means the Thailand and South Korea brackets will close in 4 hours and 5 hours, respectively. I’m going to make it! I hope to see you and maybe others there!
Not that it matters, but I looked up the results of the Monstir brackets and I picked one Semi-Finalist right, Bronzetti = I won. 😀 woohoo
Just finished the Thai bracket; now to get the Seoul one done. I hope I don’t have to be there alone this week 🤔
Upsets are likely again😔
The most difficult pick of all time has to be x.wang v x.wang, 🤔🤔
I hadn’t heard of so many players in the last two WTA. I am just spitting in the wind with my picks these days!
Big Al, yes, the name confusion, especially with Wangs.
But I see that you and Margot kept them straight. Excellent job!
My goal was not to have them intersect. And I see now that it was a mistake. Golubic already lost and Xiyu moves on lol.
It’s all a game to me, and I enjoy it.
You did really well, Elizabeth, congratulations. Yes, Al and I are with you! It’s a bit of fun!
Yes, I got Bronzetti to the SF. It seems like I’ll never pick the final four again! Thanks, Margot. It is fun, and I’m happy to have you and Big Al.
But I see there are suddenly two more brackets-ATP 250’s. Last night, they were not up. Time to make a hash of it.
LOL TDC has Bellucci listed as THOMAZ BELLUCCI
Watching and following professional Tennis is still a niche thing in these parts of Idaho. However, we do have a growing number of indoor and outdoor tennis courts. Pickleball, though, is a booming activity. But, If you visit the classic resort area of Ketchum/Sun Valley, there is plenty of interest in following professional Tennis and at least one famous Matts Wilander I have seen there (passed him in a food market)
You’ve got to look at attendance at tournaments and national viewing figures, compared to past years, to get an accurate picture.
Ricky, TDC gets loads of names wrong.
yep! haha
Ansba = Andreeva:)