The 2024 Madrid Open has ended, and viewership numbers from Spain have since been reported.
The men's tournament was won by Andrey Rublev, who recovered from a set down to beat first-time Masters 1000 finalist Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 7-5, 7-5. Despite being under the weather heading to the final, the Russian credited his doctors for prepping him for the match.
Rublev collected his second Masters title and moved to sixth in the latest rankings. While the men's championship was unexpected, the women's was contested by the world's top two, and it was more dramatic.
Iga Swiatek saved three match points to defeat Aryna Sabalenka in a third-set tie-break. The match lasted over three hours, and the Pole was "too tired" to compose herself during her victory speech.
Spanish journalist Jose Moron of Punto de Break shared the list of television viewers for the Madrid Open in Spain. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he noted that audiences reached peak levels in matches involving Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz.
This was justified by the numbers because the top four most-watched matches in the tournament included one of Nadal or Alcaraz. For instance, Alcaraz's quarterfinal defeat to Rublev, which ended his two-year title reign, was watched by nearly 1.4 million viewers on La 1 channel to rank top.
The fourth-round match between Nadal and Jiri Lehecka, which turned out to be the five-time champion's farewell appearance in Madrid, was watched by an estimated 1.3 million television viewers in Spain, ranking second-highest.
Nadal's second-round win over Alex de Minaur also garnered over 1 million viewers. The ATP final, by contrast, was watched by 552,000 and the WTA final by 203,000, which lagged in viewership.
A much bigger sample size still favored the presence of Nadal or Alcaraz. Of the top eight most-watched matches, only the men's final broke that streak.
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