Was the 2024 US Open a big hit or a colossal flop? Well, reactions are mixed. This edition was fairly different from the previous one. Top brass like Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz made early exits in this tournament. There were no Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer to draw their huge fan bases, yet we saw a few positive outcomes this year. However, amid all these positives, horrible ratings for the US Open in twin cities remain a big concern for the tournament organizers.

Overall, the 2024 US Open was special for the American tennis fans. For the first time since October 1996, we saw five American men and five women inside the Top 20 of the singles ranking. So, American fans couldn’t have asked for a better start to the tournament. Later on, Taylor Fritz also went on to become the first American man to reach the final of the US Open since Andy Roddick (2006). There was plenty to offer for all the tennis lovers in the US. However, according to multiple reports, there’s still a long way to go before we celebrate tennis in the whole country.

Perhaps Fritz’s victory in the finals would’ve changed things a bit. However, according to Seth Kaplan, the Managing Editor of Fox 9, “At some point, your sport, which is not growing or even sustaining itself in the US, has to evolve. Tennis leadership… make sure the US Open is played the week before the NFL season kicks off.” He further put up a grim picture through a tweet by claiming, “0.2 rating for the US Open in the Twin Cities DMA. With an American in the Finals. That’s literally a few thousand people. The sport needs to re-think its strategy.”

What can be the reasons for these horrible ratings? We have seen ground pass prices, tickets that allow entry to the fans on the outer courts, and the Flushing Meadows facilities rising up to $300 (six times more than Wimbledon). Issues with scheduling and late-night finishes further increased the problem. Tennis legend, Andy Murray raised this issue with his tweet stating, “The tennis scheduling situation is a total mess.” Players and fans had to battle harsh weather conditions throughout the tournament.

Not only that, according to multiple reports around 11 million DirecTV subscribers weren’t able to watch the US Open, live on the air. The ongoing contract disputes between satellite provider DirecTV and Disney has left those tennis fans deprived of one of the biggest shows in the tennis world. Are these some of the major reasons behind this massive drop in the ratings in Minneapolis and Saint Paul? A solid claim can’t be made, but everything is not dull and gloomy here at the last major of the 2024 season!

More than 1 million fans attended the 2024 US Open 

Right at the start of this tournament, Stacey Allaster, the tournament director said, “This is a party. I’m in the fun business, we’re in the entertainment business—featuring world-class tennis. The fans are the epicenter of the success for everyone.” Despite a few here and there, we can say that at the end of this tournament, fans have now truly become the “epicenter of the success.”

The Opening Day of the 2024 US Open drew the largest single-day crowd in the event’s history (74,641) at the BJK National Tennis Center. The day session crowd was the second-highest attendance (42,886) in history, while the night session created an all-time record with a crowd of 31,775. That was the story of the opening day.

If we look at the numbers after the completion of this mega event, scenes are even more fascinating for tournament organizers. A total of around 1,048,669 fans attended the tournament over the course of three weeks. That’s an 8% increase from last year. Even the attendance for the two weeks of the main draw reached a new high mark of 832,640. So it was a mix of good and bad, for all the American tennis lovers at the 2024 US Open. How was your experience from this edition of this mega-event in the tennis world?