Absence of Federer, Serena Williams and early exit of Nadal among reasons for poor Australian Open TV ratings, says tennis journalist

Roger Federer and Serena Williams retired from professional tennis last year and Nadal endured an early exit as the 2023 Australian Open missed out on some of the top figures in the sport, for the most part.

Tennis journalist Jon Wertheim feels that this absence has, in a way, led to poor TV ratings for the Grand Slam Down Under this time around. As per the reports, the viewership numbers plummeted by around 3 to 4 million in comparison to the statistics from last year.

Reflecting on the poor Australian Open TV ratings, Wertheim conveyed that the absence of the legends of the sport, alongside the withdrawal of several active players like Nick Kyrgios and Carlos Alcaraz, has collectively led to the downfall.

"No serena, no federer, no alcaraz, no kyrgios, no barty, no nadal after r2, no consistent US broadcast windows, no momentum after espn dumped so much content or exiled matches to streaming = no surprise that ratings tanked," he wrote in his tweet.

The setbacks for the 2023 Australian Open came in thick and fast even before the tournament commenced at Melbourne Park. Arguably the biggest loss came when home-favorite Nick Kyrgios announced his withdrawal.

Saturday night’s women’s singles final and the men’s doubles final garnered a peak rating of 1.437 million viewers. While one might find the stats to be impressive, it is nowhere near the ratings from last year, which peaked at 4.261 million viewers.

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Andy Murray cites absence of Roger Federer, Ashleigh Barty and Nick Kyrgios for low TV ratings during Australian Open 2023

Andy Murray and Roger Federer at the 2022 Laver Cup

Andy Murray also holds a similar opinion to that of Wertheim as the Brit feels that the absence of fan-favorites Federer, Kyrgios and Barty has contributed towards poor TV ratings during the 2023 Australian Open.

Murray took to social media on Monday to mark his outlook on the ratings. He felt that such a drop in ratings was "expected" considering the tournament underwent a dearth of top names.

"Surely a drop off to be expected in Australia with no Federer, Barry or Kyrgios. Not sure that’s the case in every region though," the 35-year-old wrote in his tweet.

While TV ratings took a dip, the 2023 Australian Open witnessed the highest-ever attendance for any Grand Slam tournament so far. Around 902,312 tennis fans attended various matches over two weeks at Melbourne Park as it broke the previous record of 812,174 spectators in 2020.