Talk About Tennis 2.0

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 13, 2025 3:31 pm We always remember the strange coincidences. The thousands that did not come true we forget.

Yeah, it's like with dolphins. We never got the stories from the people, who were pushed by dolphins not towards the shore, but in the opposite direction.

A visual joke about the dish Iga said is her favorite - pasta and strawberries

I favor Shelton over Zverev and Fritz as a potential Slam winner. He's much younger and has more upside. If it's not him then we need to think about players much younger (Fonseca, Mensik) who are not ready just yet.

skatingfan wrote: ↑Mon Jul 14, 2025 10:36 pm

Wow. We all know this, but seeing it laid out like this is quite striking.

ESPN Delivers Most Watched Tennis Telecast of the Year and Most Watched The Championships, Wimbledon in Six Years
Tennis
Most Viewed Wimbledon Quarterfinals and Semifinals in Six Years
Ardi Dwornik 1 hour ago

Most Viewed Ladies’ Semifinals in 10 Years
Most Viewed First Round in Eight Years
Most Viewed Day One on Record
ESPN+ recorded its most-streamed Tennis Tournament on record

ESPN delivered a banner edition with The Championships, Wimbledon 2025, generating some of the highest viewership since securing rights to the All England Lawn Tennis Club tournament in 2003.

Successes include the most viewed quarterfinals and semifinals of the past six years, the most viewed Ladies’ semifinals in a decade and the most viewed Wimbledon Day One ever on ESPN platforms.

The Finals:

Sunday’s Gentlemen’s Championship between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz averaged 2.9 million viewers, +31% vs. 2024
The viewership peaked at the end of the match with 4.0 million viewers.
The match only (excluding trophy ceremony and post-match analysis) averaged 3.2 million viewers, +26% vs. last year’s match.
The Finals, Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s, coverage averaged 2.2 million viewers, +19% vs. 2024
The Saturday’s Ladies’ Championship averaged 1.3 million viewers
The match only (excluding trophy ceremony and post-match analysis) averaged 1.9 million viewers, up +18% vs. last year’s match.
This was a lopsided match, with Iga Świątek delivering a dominant performance over Amanda Anisimova.
Semifinals:

The audience across both the Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Semifinals was the most viewed of the past six years
Semifinals coverage averaged 1.1 million viewers, +33% vs. 2024.

The July 10 Ladies’ Semifinals

This was the most viewed Ladies’ Semifinals in a decade (the 2015 edition featured Serena Williams), with No. 13 Anisimova defeating No. 1 Sabalenka and No. 8 Swiatek’s victory over Belinda Bencic.
Viewership averaged 897,000, +31% vs. 2024.

The July 11 Gentlemen’s Semifinals

This was the most-viewed Gentlemen’s Semifinals in six years, and featured No. 2 Alcaraz vs. No. 5 Fritz and No. 1 Sinner vs. No. 6 Djokovic (the 2019 edition featured Nadal and Federer).
Viewership averaged 1.3 million, an increase of 34% vs. 2024.
Quarterfinals:

The July 8 and 9 Quarterfinals on ESPN and ESPN2 were the most viewed in six years
Viewership averaged 488,000 viewers, +25% vs. 2024.

Overall Tournament Highlights:

2025 was the most-watched edition of the tournament of the past six years

Coverage on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 averaged 721,000 total viewers, +6% 2024 over 250 hours.
This is also the fourth best Wimbledon to date on record (dating back to 2012).
The rights agreement with AELTC began in 2003, with exclusivity as of 2012.
On June 30, ESPN captured its most viewed Wimbledon Day One on Record.
Coverage averaged 539,000 P2+ and was +37% YoY.
ESPN+:

ESPN+ recorded its most-streamed Tennis Tournament on record. Engagement was up 163% and viewership increased by 24% vs. 2024.

The top feed on ESPN+ during the Tournament was the Gentlemen’s Championship, with engagement up +67% from last year’s coverage. The Ladies Championship saw a double-digit increase in engagement vs. 2024 (+19%).
-30-

https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-rele ... six-years/

I wonder why 31% more people tuned in to see this year's men's final.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 2:50 pm I wonder why 31% more people tuned in to see this year's men's final.

I'm betting a large percentage of those folks were people who missed the Roland Garros final, read about it later, felt instant regret, and hoped for something similar.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 16, 2025 2:50 pm I wonder why 31% more people tuned in to see this year's men's final.

Maybe easier to find or better promoted on ESPN? More likely to stumble upon it?

Now the only Grand Slam event remaining this year is the USO.. which tournament has the highest correlation with the USO, in the sense of predicting the winner? seems to be Cinci.. not very surprising, but the Canadian is very much off the mark, with champions like Giorgi and Popyrin and Carreno Busta.. which is quite surprising..

Wouldn't it actually be AO?

But that is no fun. The calendar separation is too much.
In view of Sinner's dominance on hard courts, and his recent victory over Alcaraz, he is now the prohibitive favorite for the USO. Which did not work out for Alcaraz.
And with Iga's win, she is the favorite for the USO. Whatever lack of confidence she had, is gone.

I'd still pick Sabalenka on fast hard courts. Sinner is so obvious that not even worth discussing.

Iga has been very average on hardcourt this year. I would put her 3rd or 4th on the list, which would be led by Sabalenka.