Attendance and TV Watching Was High at Wimbledon and Roland Garros

Wimbledon’s 2010 men’s final between Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych may not have been a five set nail biter to rival last year’s marathon fought out by Roger Federer and Andy Roddick or the 2008 all-time classic served up by Nadal and Federer but it is still attracted a record crowd for the final Sunday of the tournament.

The All England Club reported a day later that 32,036 spectators passed through the gates Sunday, to watch primarily the men's final but also the Mixed Doubles final won by Cara Black and Leander Paes and the Boys doubles final that resulted in a British victory for Liam Broady and Tom Farquharson.

Sunday’s figure beat the previous record of 30,867 set 12 months previously. However the overall attendance for the two-week tournament was 489,946; still the second-highest total for 13 days but marginally down on the 511,043 last year. This is down to the building work of a fourth stadium show court which will be completed for the 2011 Championships.

By comparison, the 80th French Open welcomed 458,380 spectators this year even though the program of Roland Garros includes several extra days of tennis.

Broken down, 428,561 spectators attended the fortnight. The “Children of Roland-Garros Day” proved once again a huge success, with over 20,000 spectators (20,416 to be exact) present at the charity event on Saturday May 22nd. The qualifying rounds, held over four days, attracted 9,403 spectators.

British television figures for Wimbledon are not yet available but Roland Garros continues to have enormous success among French viewers. An average of 1.6 million viewers during the fortnight, watched coverage on France 2 during the fortnight of the event, holding a market share of 17.2%.
 
The men’s singles final, between Nadal and Robin Soderling, broadcast on France 2 on Sunday June 6, attracted an average of 3.3 million viewers (28.5% of TV audiences) with a peak of 4.3 million around match point.
 
The ladies’ final, between Francesca Schiavone and Samantha Stosur, attracted an average of 1.8 million viewers France 3. Over 2.4 million viewers even watched the award ceremony.
 
Over 175 countries broadcast the French Open around the world, representing a potential audience of almost three billion viewers.