ESPN last night had its second-best tennis audience on record, highlighted by coverage featuring Serena Williams' three-set win over sister Venus in the U.S. Open quarterfinals. The net drew a 2.7 overnight rating for complete five-hour, 15-minute telecast, which included a Novak Djokovic-Feliciano Lopez men's quarterfinal, puts the window second all-time for ESPN behind the Wimbledon men's final from '12, when Roger Federer defeated Andy Murray in four sets. Serena's win over Venus drew a 4.8 overnight on its own last night, which is even with ESPN's coverage of MLB's Home Run Derby in July. The 4.8 also is the best figure for any tennis match since CBS drew a 4.9 overnight for Serena's win over Victoria Azarenka in the '13 U.S. Open final. Coverage of the Serena-Venus match peaked during the final set from 10:00-10:15pm ET with a 5.6 rating. For complete U.S. Open coverage last night, 11 markets saw a new high for tennis on ESPN, including New Orleans, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale and Philadelphia. West Palm Beach, the Williams' home market, led the country with a 4.8 local rating, followed by N.Y. (4.7) and Atlanta (4.5). WatchESPN last night also saw a new high for tennis with 612,000 unique streams (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor). ESPN's Scott Van Pelt said, “There’s hyperbole in sports, but when these sisters meet, you have to celebrate what it represents” (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 9/9). ESPN’s Mike Greenberg said, “Oh, by the way, Novak Djokavic played last night. That’s what happens at the Open. That’s what Serena has done. ... It has become the Serena Open” (“Mike & Mike,” ESPN Radio, 9/9).
UP FOR DISCUSSION? USA TODAY's Nick McCarvel notes Coco Vandeweghe as of yesterday remained the "lone player to do an on-court interview during her match," and the initiative by ESPN and the USTA during this year's U.S. Open has "been met with a shrug of the shoulders and a roll of the eyes from most players." USTA Managing Dir of Communications Chris Widmaier said, "We have a partner in ESPN that’s always looking to push the boundaries in an attempt to bring an approach that has worked in other professional sports. We'd like to see it catch on." Team8 Partner Tony Godsick, who reps Roger Federer, said of mid-match interviews, "It’ll eventually happen. It’ll go down the route like the pre-match interview where people will get comfortable with it. Obviously it should always be optional, but I think it will add more to our sport and should happen over time." But ATP Player Council President Eric Butorac said that no male player "had agreed to a mid-match interview request." He added that Steve Johnson "initially said yes, then opted out." Butorac said of the mid-match interview proposal, "We were very upset about it. ... I’m all for moving the sport forward, (but) we felt like this initiative was too aggressive." He added, "If players feel comfortable doing this in the future, it could be awesome for the sport. But we just need to make sure the players understand the process" (USA TODAY, 9/9).
