 "Over a million fans attended the US Open over its three weeks. AP")
The 2024 US Open tennis tournament topped one million fans in attendance at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for the first time in the tournament’s history.
The men’s and women’s singles draws saw Americans reach the finals but were eventually beaten. Top-ranked American Taylor Fritz lost to World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in Sunday’s men’s final, a day after sixth-seeded Jessica Pegula fell to Belarus’ second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in the women’s final.
The three-week tournament, including qualifying and fan week events, witnessed an 8 percent attendance increase from last year. This year 1,048,669 fans came through the turnstiles. Attendance for the two weeks of the main draw, 26 August to 8 September, reached a new high mark of 832,640.
Among the many celebrities who were spotted at the men’s final included Taylor Swift, her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes.
The 12th-seeded Fritz was the first American man to reach the finals of the year’s last Grand Slam event since Andy Roddick was the runner-up in 2006, and the first to reach the finals of any major since Roddick lost at Wimbledon in 2009.
“I feel like the fans obviously, American fans, been wanting a men’s champion for a long time, and … I’m pretty upset with how I played,” Fritz said after Sunday’s straight-sets defeat. “I feel like, I don’t know, I feel like I almost let a lot of people down.”
The first-ever seven-day US Open Fan Week welcomed more than 219,000 fans, said USTA, and featured signature events and activities each day and night. That number represented a 37% increase from 2023.