Mesh Tennis

The U.S. Open Tennis Championships women’s final match on CBS between Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin-Hardenne on Saturday, Sept. 9, was seen in all or part by an estmated 10.8 million viewers, up 10 percent from last year’s 9.8 million (when Kim Clijsters defeated Mary Pierce).

Meanwhile on Sunday, Sept. 10, the men’s final between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick drew 18.1 million for all or part of the telecast, down 5 percent from last year’s 19.1 million when Federer defeated Andre Agassi.

The women’s final drew the largest number of viewers since 2002, when 20.1 million watched Serena Williams defeat her sister Venus. The men’s final also drew the most viewes since 2002, when 25 million watched Pete Sampras defeat Agassi.

In total for the two weekends of CBS Sports’ coverage of the Open, along with its daily weeknight late results show, the network drew an estimated 63.5 million viewers, up 2 percent from last year’s 62.3 million. That was the largest number of viewers since the 2002 Open, when a total of 78.3 million viewers watched the CBS coverage. Mediaweek

This entry was posted on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Gossip / Non-Tour News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.