Emma Raducanu Inches Closer to Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic’s Record Following Her Win Over Leylah Fernandez at US Open 2021

The women’s singles matches at the US Open this year have engaged tennis fans across the globe as most of the contests weren’t lop-sided and continued the WTA tradition of producing new talent with each passing tournament. The championship match between British qualifier Emma Raducanu and the rising Canadian prodigy Leylah Fernandez provided a well-deserving end to a fortnight of quality tennis.

Both the players had different paths entering into the tournament and faced numerous obstacles en route the finals.

Emma Raducanu dominated Leylah Fernandez to capture first-ever major title at US Open 2021

While Fernandez had to defeat the likes of Osaka, Kerber, and Sablenka to reach the final step, Raducanu played three qualifier matches, entered the main draw, and stunned Bencic, Sakkari before reaching the final.

Anyone who tuned into the championship match between these two youngsters would realize that the quality of tennis displayed on Arthur Ashe stadium was extremely high, especially in the first hour.

The advantage kept shifting between Raducanu and Fernandez, with the former rising to a quick lead of 2-0 and Fernandez had to dig deep to level the score. However, the British teenager went for her shots without reluctance and received dividends for her bravery as she clinched the first set, 6-4.

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Even though the Canadian looked dominant in the first few games of the second set, she never found her best tennis and eventually lost to the better player of the two – Emma Raducanu.

US Open Women’s Final created a mind-boggling viewership record on UK’s Channel 4 network

The viewership of this final match created new records for British free-to-air public TV network, Channel 4. The network inked a last-minute signing with Amazon Prime Video(Official US Open broadcaster in the UK) for broadcasting the championship match between Raducanu and Fernandez.

This move by Channel 4 needs to be appreciated as this contest registered a record-breaking 9.2 million viewership for the network. Even though the initial round matchups weren’t televised on Channel 4, people from the United Kingdom tuned in to see their rising star win a major tournament.

Another interesting fact to note here is that 48% of audience were in the age group of 16-34 years. This number indicates that tennis could reach the masses across the world if free-to-air services are made available in as many countries as possible, at least for the grand slams.

The earth-shattering 9.2 million viewership was on par with the numbers that would have been generated if any two of the Big-3(Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic) were part of this year’s final.

Last year, the US Open television statistics proved dismal as both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal didn’t play the event while Novak Djokovic was forfeited from the tournament unfortunately.

TV viewership of US Open women’s final is on par with major finals played by Big-3

The men’s singles matchup between Naomi Osaka and Victoria Azarenka was viewed by 1.7 million viewers across the ESPN network. Looking at the impact Big-3 had over attracting new audiences to the sport, the Federer-Nadal duel at the 2017 Australian Open gave Eurosport its biggest viewership record till date( 20.7 million tuned in across Europe).

Looking at the numbers generated for the matchup between Raducanu and Fernandez, it’s safe to assume that tennis will have huge audiences even after sporting legends like Serena Williams, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal bid adieu to the game.

But, for tennis to instill interest amongst new viewers, it’s highly essential that a flexible broadcasting procedure is implemented to take the sport to masses.

Also read: Emma Raducanu Makes Honest Admission After Her Parents Were Forced To Miss the Historic US Open 2021 Finals