Bianca Andreescu’s historic victory in the women’s singles final at the 2019 edition of tennis grand slam the US Open has set ratings records in her home country, Canada.
Pay-television broadcasters TSN and RDS, rights-holders for the US Open in Canada, have reported that Andreescu’s straight sets victory over Serena Williams in Saturday’s final attracted a record average audience of 3.4 million viewers. This made it the most-watched tennis broadcast ever for the broadcasters, attracting a higher average audience than that of this year’s edition of the NHL ice hockey league’s Stanley Cup final.
The 19-year-old’s maiden grand slam title was also the first time a Canadian had won the singles tournament at one of the sport’s four major competitions. Preliminary data from Numeris showed that more than 7.4 million unique Canadian viewers tuned in to TSN, and its French-language arm RDS, to watch some part of the match. Audiences peaked at 5.3 million viewers at 5:59pm ET in the second set as Andreescu secured the title.
The women’s final ranked as the No.1 program of the day on Saturday, and TSN was the most-watched network in Canada, ahead of all conventional networks. The match ranks as Canada’s most-watched broadcast since the Toronto Raptors clinched the 2019 NBA basketball championship on TSN, fellow Bell Media-owned pay-television broadcaster CTV, and RDS.
The match also attracted significant engagement across TSN’s digital platforms, with US Open video content on TSN.ca and the TSN app growing 145 per cent compared to last year’s tournament, and more than 13 million impressions for US Open content on TSN’s social media platforms.
Andreescu’s unprecedented performance at the US Open broke audience records throughout the tournament, as she set multiple new records for TSN’s most-watched US Open broadcast with her wins in both the semi-finals and quarter-finals.
Average audiences for TSN’s exclusive live coverage of the 2019 US Open grew 69 per cent compared to last year, with nearly 10.7 million Canadians watching some part of the tournament.