Coco Gauff's US Open final win was historic in more ways than one.
Gauff won her first-ever Grand Slam title following a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over current No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka this past weekend.
In the process, she became the youngest American to become a US Open champion since a certain 17-year-old Serena Williams back in 1999. Additionally, she became just the fourth American teenager to win a Grand Slam singles title in the Open era.
Gauff's victory received praise and plaudits from a number of big names and celebrities while she definitely gained plenty of new fans. That's because her final win over Sabalenka was the “most-viewed” women's Grand Slam final match on ESPN and notably garnered more viewers than Novak Djokovic's US Open final win over Daniil Medvedev.
According to ESPN's released viewing figures (via Tennis 365), Gauff's win over Sabalenka on Saturday drew 3.4 million viewers. Remarkably, that's a 92 percent increase from last year when Iga Swiatek defeated Ons Jabeur in the final.
Djokovic's win over Medvedev, meanwhile, garnered only 2.3 million viewers in comparison which is still an eight percent increase from last year's final when Carlos Alcaraz won his first ever Grand Slam after defeating Casper Ruud.
While those are impressive numbers for the women's final some context is required.
Gauff is an American and notably the first American winner at Flushing Meadows since Sloane Stephens back in 2017 so that likely played a factor. Additionally, their game was played on a Saturday when there were no major conflicting sporting events going on the time.
Djokovic and Medvedev, meanwhile, had to contend with the return of the NFL on Sunday which was always going to steal a good chunk of their potential viewership.
Gauff-Sabalenka's 3.4 million viewers is a big drop from Serena Williams’ 2013 US Open final win over Victoria Azarenka that gained 6.2 million viewers. All that said, it's still a decent number of viewers considering the finals in recent years.
Overall, the tournament was said to have averaged one million viewers on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 which represents a 25 percent increase from 2021, but down 17 percent in 2022. Given that it was Serena Williams' final appearance at the US Open last year, that likely played a big role.
The semifinals for both men and women averaged a record 1.9 million viewers which is a one percent increase from last year. The women's semifinals in particular averaged 1.8 million viewers which is a 56 percent increase from 2022.
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