Men’s tennis attracted record crowds during 2017, with more tickets sold than in any previous year.
In figures released by the ATP, it was revealed that more than 4.5 million fans attended ATP World Tour events over the course of the year.
The French Open, which added an extra men’s semi-final session, had a record 472,000 attendance, as did the combined clay-court tournaments at Madrid and Rome.
There was a slight increase from around 700,000 spectators in 2016 at the US Open, despite an increase in some ticket prices.
473,400 attended Wimbledon, which was down compared to the 494,000 figure in 2016, although that year saw an extra day’s play.
The season culminated with the Nitto ATP Finals at London’s O2 in November when the total attendance of 253,600 broke the 250,000-mark for the ninth consecutive year.
Chris Kermode, ATP executive chairman and president, was positive about the figures despite the attendance being around 10,000 down on the record of 263,000 set in 2014.
Kermode said: “This year’s tournament will go down as one of the most fiercely contested, with so many matches going the distance. The event saw some breakthrough performances from the likes of Jack Sock, David Goffin, and of course Grigor Dimitrov, in front of packed crowds at The O2, the world’s leading entertainment venue.
“On behalf of the ATP, we would also like to thank the fans that came out in such strong numbers to support our year-end event, and the Tour as a whole in 2017.”
IMAGE: Jojo
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