After a 2025 French Open final that featured major stars on both the men’s and women’s sides, TNT Sports saw an expected viewership decline this year absent any star power.
Sunday’s men’s final between German Alexander Zverev and Italian Flavio Cobolli averaged just 1.3 million viewers across TNT and truTV, marking a 20-year viewership low for the event, per data from Sports Business Journal. Zverev’s win, the first grand slam title of his career, notched a 25% year-over-year decline versus the 2025 men’s final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner (1.76 million viewers on TNT/truTV).
The women’s final on Saturday was down an even greater deal on a percentage basis, though did not hit a multi-decade low like the men. Mirra Andreeva’s win over long-shot qualifier Maja Chwalinska drew just 826,000 viewers across TNT and truTV, down 44% versus last year’s star-studded final between Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka (1.47 million viewers on TNT/truTV). The 2024 women’s final between Iga Swiatek and Jasmine Paolini captured a smaller audience, just 756,000 viewers on NBC.
The downturn in viewership was to be expected when comparing the level of recognition this year’s quartet of finalists have compared to last year’s finalists, which featured arguably the two biggest names in men’s tennis and the most popular women’s tennis player in the United States.
Despite the lackluster finals, TNT was able to stay relatively level in terms of viewership for the full tournament. Per Sports Business Journal, the network averaged 387,000 viewers across all windows, down 1% from the network’s inaugural French Open last year (390,000 viewers). HBO Max saw a 23% increase in number of hours streamed per subscriber.
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.