The legendary American tennis player Serena Williams put this Friday what will probably be the end point of her career, by surrendering to the Australian Ajla Tomljanovic on a day that registered the absolute record of spectators at the US Open.
A total of 72.039 spectators attended the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and 23.859 fans sold out the Arthur Ashe court to attend the final match of the Serena Williams’ career, according to official data provided by the organization.
Williams, 40 years old, said goodbye to the US Open after the longest game of his career at Flushing Meadows, lasting three hours and five minutes and lost 7-5, 6-7(4) and 6-1.
There was 42.202 amateurs on the morning and afternoon shifts and 29.837 on the night shift, that included in his pro Williams’ duel against Tomljanovic is scheduled.
In Flushing Meadows they no longer speak of ‘seven at night’ but of ‘Serena Time’, because the four Williams matches that have been organized at said hours on the Arthur Ashe court have also had the highest television ratings according to ESPN.
The network broadcast and reported the highest rating for Williams’ three singles matches, in addition to the last doubles of his career with his sister Venus who lost on Thursday in a completely packed Arthur Ashe track.
Each of these nights recorded extraordinary results, with an average of 2.7 million viewers for Monday’s game and a maximum of five million at the key moment of the second-round match won by Williams against Estonian Anett Kontaveit.
So far they have not offered data from the meeting between Serena and Alja, but it is likely that the numbers are much higher than those seen at the start of the U S Open for the American.