Carlos Alcaraz was likely happy that he won the 2024 Wimbledon Championships final in three sets, but the same couldn't be said about the broadcasters.
The 21-year-old Spaniard played in his second consecutive Wimbledon final, and once again, he faced the same opponent. Novak Djokovic was looking to add his eighth title at SW19 to equal Roger Federer's record, but for the second consecutive year, he couldn't do it.
Last year, Alcaraz beat his opponent in a five-set match that lasted nearly five hours, 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, and that, naturally, resulted in more people tuning in to the match, especially in the fifth set, which was very close.
The Serbian legend had a break point to lead 2-0 in the decider after saving one break point himself in the opening game of the fifth set, but after he couldn't use that chance, the youngster broke his serve and never looked back to win the match in five sets.
This epic final resulted in 11.3 million people tuning in to watch BBC's live broadcast, as per James Gray from iNews. This year, the viewing figures were much lower, also because of the Spaniard's dominant victory.
After this year's final match, Alcaraz said that he wanted to avoid mistakes from last year, and that resulted in a very one-sided scoreline in the opening two sets, as the defending champion was able to win those 6-2, 6-2 in just an hour-and-a-half of play.
His opponent made the third set dramatic after saving three consecutive championship points at 5-4 and 40-0, but it wasn't enough to push the match past the third hour. It finished in less than two hours and 30 minutes, with Alcaraz winning 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(4).
The young Spaniard was probably happy that he was able to finish the match early, as he spoke about his desire to enjoy Spain's final match of the 2024 UEFA European Championship against England, which he got to do thanks to his swift win.
However, the absence of a dramatic finish and the shorter time during which the match was broadcast was also reflected in BBC's viewing figures for the 2024 Wimbledon Championships final matches.
This year, Only 7.5 million people watched the Gentlemen's Singles final match, which is nearly four million people less compared to the epic 2023 final.
The numbers in the Ladies' singles final were quite comparable to last year's. Once again, a Czech player won the tournament, and once again, it was a surprising run, pulling more than four million people to reach the final.
Last year, Marketa Vondrousova stunned Ons Jabeur in two sets, winning 6-4, 6-4, and 4.5 million of viewers saw that triumph through their TV screens.
This year, the final match lasted about 40 minutes longer, as it had to be decided in the third set. Barbora Krejcikova beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, winning her second career singles Grand Slam title.
Viewership numbers for her victory over Paolini were comparable to those of Vondrousova's victory over Jabeur, as 4.1 million fans watched the Ladies' Singles final on BBC this year.