Noskova-Muchova thriller becomes ESPN’s most-watched Wimbledon women’s final.
LONDON: A dramatic mid-match incident helped propel the Wimbledon women’s singles final between Linda Noskova and Karolina Muchova to become ESPN’s most-watched championship match from the grass-court Grand Slam.
The all-Czech final, in which Linda Noskova squandered five championship points and a 5-2 lead in the second set before recovering to beat Karolina Muchova 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 on Saturday, drew an average of 1.9 million viewers.
The audience was 48% higher than last year’s Wimbledon women’s final, when Iga Swiatek defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in just 57 minutes.
ESPN first began broadcasting Wimbledon in 2003 and has held exclusive US television rights to the tournament since 2012.
Jannik Sinner’s four-set victory over Alexander Zverev in Sunday’s men’s final attracted an average of 2.4 million viewers, down 16% from 2025, when Sinner defeated Carlos Alcaraz in four sets.
Despite the drop in the men’s final audience, ESPN said this year’s tournament was its second most-watched Wimbledon overall, with average daily viewership rising 18% year-on-year to 853,000.
Only the 2019 Championships drew a larger audience, highlighted by Novak Djokovic’s epic five-set victory over Roger Federer in the men’s final and Simona Halep’s win over Serena Williams in the women’s title match.
ESPN also recorded its biggest audience for a Wimbledon Day 2 broadcast after Serena Williams’ return to Grand Slam tennis following a nearly four-year absence drew an average of 1.8 million viewers, despite the match being played on a Tuesday afternoon in the United States.
Strong viewership in Italy
In Italy, where Jannik Sinner has become the country’s most popular athlete, the Wimbledon men’s final attracted an average of 4.2 million viewers and captured a 33.8% audience share, according to Sky Italia, as he claimed his fifth Grand Slam title.
That figure was lower than last year’s final, when Sinner’s victory over Carlos Alcaraz drew an average television audience of 5.7 million in Italy.
The Wimbledon finals began at 11 a.m. ET in the United States and 5 p.m. local time in Italy.
