All Eyes Were on Flushing Meadows for the 2011 U.S. Open

October 1, 2011 | By New York Tennis Magazine Staff
Open_Ball_201

Television ratings for the Men’s Singles Finals of the 2011 U.S. Open between top-seeded Novak Djokovic and second-seeded Rafael Nadal were up over last year’s Nielsen Ratings on CBS, with an overnight rating of 2.6 and a six share. The four-hour plus Djokovic-Nadal match of 2011 was up 18 percent over 2010’s finals match between the two. Nielsen Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions tuned into a program. Shares represent the percentage of all homes with TVs in use at the time. Nielsen Ratings are audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research that determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States.

Approximately 53.1 million viewers watched all or part of this year’s Open on CBS Sports, up 17 percent from last year. Ratings overall for the U.S. Open on CBS Sports, which includes broadcasts of Labor Day Weekend and Finals Weekend, saw overall ratings increase over the past three years, matching the ratings of 2007.
The 2011 Djokovic-Nadal finals match was moved from Sunday to Monday, Sept. 12 due to rain that washed out men’s and women’s action, sending schedule-makers into a frenzy and condensing the schedule for the fourth round onward.

The move of the Men’s Singles Finals to Monday, Sept. 12 at 4:00 p.m. may have also given the match a ratings boost as the originally scheduled day and time slot of Sunday, Sept. 11 at noon, was the first Sunday of action of the 2011 National Football League schedule.

This year’s Women’s Singles Finals on Sunday, Sept. 11 achieved a 3.3 national rating, with 13.1 million viewers watching all or part of the final, an increase of 93 percent from viewership of the Kim Clijsters-Vera Zvonareva final which aired in primetime on Saturday last year. In addition, the Men’s Singles Final was seen in all or part by 11.8 million viewers.

USOpen.org set a new site record for unique visitors (15,421,675), surpassing 2010’s total by 24 percent, and total visits to the site topped 51 million (51,868,345), the second most in history. Additionally, more than 3.1 million hours of live streaming was viewed, an increase of 12 percent over last year. USOpen.org also saw record mobile traffic across its mobile-friendly Web site (m.usopen.org) and the official iPhone and Android Apps, with more than 84 million page views (84,350,596), a 173 percent increase over 2010’s totals.

Despite facing Hurricane Irene at the start of the tournament and then working through two days of rain, the USTA announced that the 2011 U.S. Open still attracted more than 650,000 fans to the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

Attendance highlights included:

►The all-time Labor Day Weekend attendance record (Saturday, Sept. 3-Monday, Sept. 5) of 186,186.
►The Men’s Final featuring Djokovic and Nadal also set an all-time attendance record of 24,713 in Arthur Ashe Stadium and on the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
►The Men’s Semifinal attendance of 24,071 on Saturday, Sept. 10 set a record as well.
►Overall, 11 sessions of the 2011 U.S. Open sold out.

Credit all photos to Kenneth B. Goldberg
 


Serbian Novak Djokovic celebrates winning the 2011 U.S. Open



Serena Williams (pictured), the favorite on the women’s side, ponders her upset loss to Australia’s Samantha Stosur in the Women’s Finals, 2-6, 3-6



Switzerland’s Roger Federer (pictured) returns a backhand in his 7-6, 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 5-7 loss to eventual U.S. Open winner Novak Djokovic in the Men’s Semifinals



Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki (pictured) at Arthur Ashe Stadium during her 2-6, 4-6 loss in the Women’s Semifinals to Serena Williams



Spain’s Rafael Nadal (pictured) en route to his 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 win over American Andy Roddick that would land him a trip to the 2011 U.S. Open Finals



2011 U.S. Open winner Samantha Stosur (pictured) of Australia in early round action against American Coco Vandeweghe at Louis Armstrong Stadium



France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (pictured) defeated American Mardy Fish, the number eight seed, 6-4, 6-7(5), 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in fourth round action



Julia Elbalba of Oyster Bay, N.Y. in first round action on Court 13 at the U.S. Open Junior Girl Singles event



The American doubles team of Bob & Mike Bryan (pictured) were upset early on in action by Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic & Frank Moser from Germany



Germany’s Andrea Petkovic (pictured), the number 10 seed celebrates her 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over China’s Jie Zheng on the Grandstand



The number seven seed Gael Monfils (pictured) of France displays his athleticism during his opening round 7-6(4), 6-3, 6-4 win against Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov



Unseeded American Christina McHale (pictured) celebrates her 7-6(2), 6-2 win over the eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli from France



Great Britain’s Andy Murray (pictured), the number four seed, in his 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(2) quarterfinals win over American John Isner

 


New York Tennis Magazine Staff
Centercourt
USTA NTC

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