A pair of singles finals that went the distance delivered strong viewership for TNT in its first year airing the French Open.
According to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, Sunday’s men’s singles final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner averaged 1.76 million viewers across TNT and truTV, up 8% versus last year’s men’s final between Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev on NBC (1.6 million viewers). Both matches went five sets, making TNT’s improvement over its broadcast network counterpart at NBC all the more impressive.
It should be noted, this is the first year in which Nielsen’s expanded out-of-home viewing methodology was used to measure the French Open, which likely helped lift TNT’s numbers.
Nevertheless, the network notched the most-watched men’s final since 2021 when Novak Djokovic defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in a five set thriller (1.9 million viewers on NBC).
Over at the women’s draw, Coco Gauff’s three set win over Aryna Sabalenka finished with a huge increase over last year’s women’s singles final. Gauff’s win, the first from an American woman since Serena Williams in 2015, averaged 1.47 million viewers, up 94% from Iga Świątek’s win over Jasmine Paolini last year (756,000 viewers on NBC). It was the most-watched women’s final since 2016, when Williams fell to Garbine Muguruza.
Overall, the French Open averaged 399,000 viewers across TNT Sports’ properties, per Lewis. That figure is up 25% year-over-year, when the tournament aired on NBC and Tennis Channel.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.