How US Open became the best Grand Slam of 2022: From Serena Williams' emotional farewell to Carlos Alcaraz's historic run, and more

The 2022 US Open marked the end of a Grand Slam tennis season that will probably be remembered for a long, long time. While some of the 'serial winners' further stamped their authority, many new champions emerged as well, already setting the stage for an exciting 2023 season.

The Grand Slam season kicked off with the Australian Open, where Rafael Nadal's unexpected yet vintage victory made him the leader in the title race, while Ashleigh Barty's home Major title win turned out to be her last career title. The dominant Iga Swiatek swept the French Open, while Nadal then made further history with his 14th at Roland Garros.

Novak Djokovic made a strong comeback at Wimbledon to close the gap on Nadal in the title race, while an unexpected champion in Elena Rybakina emerged on the women's side, amidst all the controversy surrounding the historic Grand Slam tournament.

The first three Majors of the 2022 season had a mix of it all: eye-capturing storylines, epic comebacks, controversies, classic battles, and most importantly, some incredible displays of tennis. They set a high standard for the US Open and the New York Major certainly lived up to it.

Many opined that one of the biggest concerns for the US Open's success in terms of viewership and attendance this year would be the absence of Djokovic, in light of his controversial build-up to the tournament. The Serbian ended up missing the tournament as he chose to remain unvaccinated and the country's rules allowed entry only to fully vaccinated non-citizens. While the USTA simply vowed adherence to their government's regulations, they received a lot of backlash for the 21-time Grand Slam champion's absence.

However, the 2022 US Open smashed all previous records for attendance and viewership, setting an all-time high in the tournament's history.

According to a US Open statement, 776,120 fans attended the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for the US Open this year, surpassing the previous record of 737,872 fans set in 2019. The showpiece court - Arthur Ashe Stadium with a seating capacity of 23,859 - was sold out for every session throughout the two weeks. As per Forbes, the 2022 US Open also recorded an average viewership of 1.21 million over the fortnight, which is a rise of 50% from last year.

A Friday night third-round match between Serena Williams and Ajla Tomljanovic in the first week of the tournament attracted an average of 4.6 million viewers, becoming the most-watched tennis telecast in ESPN's history.

Additionally, the 2022 edition also broke previous records in terms of fan engagement on social media, food and beverage sales, as well as merchandise sales.

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Why the tennis at 2022 US Open was a spectacle to behold

Serena Williams at the 2022 US Open.

Serena Williams' retirement announcement just a couple of weeks before the US Open drew massive interest at the New York Major. One of the greatest players of all time, saying her final goodbyes at her home Grand Slam attracted widespread engagement, and many in attendance during her three singles and one doubles matches experienced a great spectacle and farewell.

While the Williams-Tomljanovic match broke all records for ESPN, her matches against Anett Kontaveit (Round 2) averaged 3.6 million viewers and peaked at 5 million concurrent viewers in the third set.

The top-2 ranked American women, Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff, also drew a lot of crowd and support in New York. The fact that both made deep runs to the quarterfinals, playing some great tennis along the way, further helped the cause.

Fan favorites Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur also played at their very best en route to the finals, with the Pole further extending her dominance this season to the hardcourts by clinching her third Major.

On the men's side, Nadal, along with Carlos Alcaraz, Nick Kyrgios, and Daniil Medvedev, among others, drew the most attention in the build-up. Despite the absence of Djokovic and both Nadal and Medvedev losing in the fourth round, the tournament will still go down as one of the most thrilling.

Alcaraz, who had already captured the attention of the tennis world before the US Open, made further strides in his young career, playing three epic five-setters en route to the final. In the final, he met Casper Ruud, setting up a fitting finale as the winner took both the No. 1 ranking and his maiden Grand Slam. Alcaraz ended up winning both and in the process became the youngest ever men's World No. 1

The Spaniard's quarterfinal match against Jannik Sinner is being considered by many as one of the greatest matches of the decade.

American hopes were hit hard early as American No. 1 Taylor Fritz was knocked out in Round 1. However, Frances Tiafoe, with an inspiring backstory on him, produced a breakthrough Grand Slam performance, stunning Nadal en route to his first Major semifinal. He came ever so close to a final and possibly a title, but bowed out in five sets to eventual champion Alcaraz.

The match between Alcaraz and Tiafoe averaged 2.96 million viewers, up 66% from last year's equivalent between Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev.