Tennis boom confirmed with stunning attendance figures at the US Open
Tennis appears to be in the grip of a huge surge in interest around the world and that has been confirmed by stunning attendance figures for the US Open.
The Covid pandemic was followed by a period of dipping attendances at tennis events around the world, with the poor crowds at last year’s WTA Finals in Texas evidence of the struggle to sell tickets for some of the game’s major events.
Yet Wimbledon reported a surge in interest from fans in July and now the US Open have confirmed they broke all attendance records at this year’s event.
USTA officials have released the two and three-week figures for ticket sales, with the final Grand Slam of the year welcoming fans on-site for qualifying and other events featuring the biggest stars in the game.
The three-week total was 957,387 fans over the 20 days which included both the main draw and US Open Fan Week, a nearly 8% increase over 2022.
The tournament’s 2023 main-draw attendance was a US Open record 799,402, including sell-outs in all 25 sessions in Arthur Ashe Stadium, for the second year in a row.
Both the men’s (28,804) and women’s championship (28,143) sessions were the highest-attended championship sessions in US Open history.
The middle weekend of the US Open (Labour Day holiday in America) saw 201,787 fans coming to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, which was the first time it topped the 200,000 mark.
On Wednesday’s Day 3, the tournament eclipsed 73,000 in single-day attendance for the first time in event history, as 73,007 fans came through the gates at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
The big crowds in New York were great news for tournament organisers, but there were some complaints from players over rowdy behaviour.
There were several incidents where play was stopped as spectators screamed out during point or in between first and second serves, with losing finalist Daniil Medvedev among those annoyed by the heckling.
“Thanks a lot to all the guys who don’t shout between first and second serve. You guys are great,” he told the crowd after his third round win against Sebastian Baez.
“But I think there is one guy, I don’t know if he has a girlfriend or a wife. But I don’t know how she’s going to sleep because he’s so pumped up that in the night he’s going to be saying “VAMO! VAMO! VAMO! VAMO!” Like non-stop. I feel sorry for him.”
We are now expecting to see bumper crowds for this week’s Davis Cup matches around the world, with Britain’s LTA reporting strong ticket sales for the event featuring their nation at the AO Arena in Manchester.
“All tickets are now sold out for Great Britain vs France on Sunday 17 September and tickets are selling fast for all other days so book now to avoid disappointment,” confirmed an LTA memo on their website.
This is a different scenario to last year, when there was an initial struggle to sell tickets for the Billie Jean Cup finals in Glasgow, before a surge in interest as the Great Britain team served up an unexpected run to the semi-finals.
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