TV ratings released by Nielsen show that NBC experienced a sharp drop in ratings for the Wimbledon finals this year. The men's final, in which Rafael Nadal defeated Tomas Berdych in straight sets, received a 1.9—less than half last year's epic between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.
The women's final between Serena Williams and Vera Zvonareva received a 1.8—down a third from last year's all-Williams meeting.
The first week of the tournament produced relatively strong numbers for ESPN2. It received an average rating of 0.5, an increase of 14 percent over last year. Viewership was boosted by the early round struggles of Federer and Nadal, as well as the record-breaking longest match between John Isner and Nicholas Mahut. Ratings peaked at 0.8 for the fifth set between Isner and Mahut.
The network also said that viewership of its online stream of the event was four times bigger than last year.
Each rating point represents approximately one million homes.