1.173m and 851,000 watch Djokovic and Osaka win Australian Open titles, respectively
1.173 million viewers across the five capital cities watched Novak Djokovic win his ninth Australian Open last night, taking out the title in three sets against Daniil Medvedev.
The match, which ran from 7:46pm to 9:29pm, attracted less viewers to Nine than last year’s men’s final, in which Djokovic defeated Dominic Thiem, attracting 1.524 million metro viewers – almost as many as the 1.547 million who watched last night’s final nationally.
Last night’s #ausopen men’s finals match between Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev saw the audience peak with 1.811m viewers (metro: 1.357m reg: 454,000). The average audience through the match was 1.547m (metro: 1.173m reg: 374,000). pic.twitter.com/VGd0xjgVxy
— Nine Comms (@9Comms) February 21, 2021
Meanwhile, Saturday night’s women’s final between Naomi Osaka and Jennifer Brady drew 851,000 metro viewers, or 1.143 million with the regions included.
In a two set battle played from 7:45pm to 9:03pm, Osaka’s win became the most-watched show of the night, and delivered Nine a 36% network share on Saturday, but was behind last year’s women’s final audience of 890,000 metro viewers. The year before, in 2019, 1.171 million watched Osaka win the title.
"One of the greatest things a person can do is inspire others.”
From a quiet winner to a vocal champion, the effects of @naomiosaka's transformation can be felt far beyond the tennis court.
Congrats on major title number 4 to the one raising more than her game. pic.twitter.com/2AZMA6fCMW
— Nike (@Nike) February 20, 2021
All up, 11.3 million viewers watched Nine’s Australian Open coverage, delayed three weeks due to COVID-19 complications. But while Nine won the week on a metro basis with a 30.7% network share against Seven’s 25.3%, the final week’s matches wasn’t enough for Nine to also top the national ratings, with the regions pushing Seven to a 32% share versus Nine’s 24.5%.

Osaka with the trophy. Source: Tennis Australia
Djokovic’s win was the most watched program last night (and topped all three key advertising demographics), rating above news programming from Seven (977,000), Nine (792,000), and the ABC (627,000).
Next in line was the pre-game coverage of the men’s final with 601,000 metro viewers, ahead of The Amazing Race on Ten (523,000) and Holey Moley on Seven (498,000). The presentation of the Australian Open trophy was watched by 357,000 in metro areas.
The men’s Australian Open final gave Nine an easy win last night, sitting on top of the network share pile on 35.7%, followed by Seven on 23%, Ten on 18%, ABC on 15.8%, and SBS on 7.4%. 10 Bold had a 3.6% share, making it the most watched multi-channel.