"They really tried to make us believe Kyrgios was the one making the most views" - Tennis fans react to 2022 US Open viewership numbers

At the end of the last Grand Slam of the year — the 2022 US Open, the tennis world welcomed a new champion in Carlos Alcaraz, while it saw Iga Swiatek walk away with her third Major trophy.

However, the tournament was memorable because of a number of other aspects as well. Most importantly, it was Serena Williams' last tournament as a professional tennis player, marking the end of her 27-year-long decorated career. Apart from that, Frances Tiafoe beating Rafael Nadal and reaching the semifinals set the tennis world abuzz.

Based on ESPN's viewership numbers in America, Williams's last match, where she lost to Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round, was the most-watched match of the tournament with an average of 4.6 million views. The second-most-watched encounter also belonged to the 23-time Grand Slam winner as she beat Anett Kontaveit in the second round.

While the men's final between Alcaraz and Casper Ruud garnered 2.1 million views on average, the women's final between Swiatek and Ons Jabeur fetched 1.7 million views. Fans were mighty impressed with the fact that four out of the six most-watched matches belonged to women. While some credited Williams' power for attracting views, others believed that it was only because viewers knew that she was going to retire.

"Well, I watch plenty of WTA, but LBH. Might these numbers have something to do with Serena's evolving away from tennis announcement ? I think so. The tricky part is reproducing them," a fan tweeted.

"Even taking away Serena. Gauff and Garcia had the second highest rated match. You tell me why Tsitsipas, Medvedev, Zverev or any of them have the right to tell the women bringing in more revenue than them that they don't deserve equal pay. Ridiculous," a user posted.

"Can someone please send this to @DjokerNole who claimed that women brought less crowd than men and should therefor not command the same prize money," another tweet read.

Here are a few more reactions:

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Alexander Zverev's new injury puts tennis future in doubt

Alexander Zverev at the 2022 French Open

Alexander Zverev was expected to return to action with the Davis Cup this week. However, the fifth-ranked German recently revealed that he has suffered another injury — bone edema, a condition in which fluid builds up in the bone marrow. Yannick Hanfmann has been named as his replacement in Germany's squad.

“I have a bone edema issue which causes me quite a lot of pain,” Zverev said. “I don’t know if it happened yesterday or not, but yesterday in practice with Oscar Otte, it got to the point where I couldn’t run or walk anymore. I subsequently found out that it was a bone edema, which means I won’t be able to participate here and it is not a question of days, it is more a question of weeks or most likely even months.”

Zverev injured his right ankle while playing against Rafael Nadal in the semifinals of the 2022 French Open.