LONDON — Over the weekend, the Wimbledon final between Linda Noskova and Karolina Muchova was ESPN’s most-watched women’s championship match at a grass-court Grand Slam, helped by mid-match drama.
In Saturday’s all-Czech final, Noskova wasted five match points and held a 5-2 lead in the second set before ultimately winning 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. The average number of viewers was 1.9 million. This was a 48% increase compared to last year’s women’s final, where Iga Swiatek defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in 57 minutes.
ESPN began broadcasting Wimbledon in 2003 and has had exclusive rights since 2012.
Jannik Sinner’s four-set victory over Alexander Zverev in the men’s final on Sunday averaged 2.4 million viewers, a 16% decrease from 2025, when Sinner defeated Carlos Alcaraz in four sets.
Overall, it ranked as the second most-watched Wimbledon on ESPN, averaging 853,000 viewers per day, up 18% from last year, the network said. This year’s numbers were the only one to fall short of 2019, when Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer in a memorable five-set final and Simona Halep defeated Serena Williams to win the women’s trophy.
Williams’ return to Grand Slam tennis this year for the first time in nearly four years also gave ESPN its largest audience for the second day of Wimbledon, averaging 1.8 million viewers in the U.S. even though the match was played on a Tuesday afternoon.
Sinner’s victory over Alcaraz last year averaged 5.7 million viewers in Italy.
The finals began at 11 a.m. ET in the United States and 5 p.m. ET in Italy.
