• by Michael Shields , July 6, 2004

Tennis insiders hope that this past weekend's action at Wimbledon, the most prestigious of the sports' four "majors," is the start of a major resurgence in fan interest and ratings.

The presence of an American player helped the Wimbledon's men's final bounce back from last year's record low performance, while the surprise emergence of a new star helped blunt the effects of a slight ratings decline for the women's final last Saturday.

Based on overnight ratings, Roger Federer's four-set victory over American Andy Roddick in Sunday's Wimbledon Gentlemen's Final on NBC delivered a 3.6 overnight rating/10 share, up 33 percent over last year's low-interest final match between Swiss-born Federer and Aussie Mark Philippoussis.

According to Nielsen, the match drew the event's best overnight rating since 2000, when Pete Sampras took on Patrick Rafter.

"It bodes well for the future of the sport," said Kathy Connors, manager of communications for NBC Sports, of the matchup between two young players who are considered among the best in the game. "It's an emerging rivalry between the two stars. It was certainly the matchup people wanted to see," she said. "They have been waiting for a star," echoed Paul Swangard, managing director at the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. "That is the best you can hope for since [Pete] Sampras left."

While the men's final seemed to indicate the growing appeal of American Andy Roddick and raised hopes that men's tennis was finally benefiting from star power, the results for Saturday's Ladies' Final were down, from a 4.0/11 to a 3.9/11. Still, 17-year-old Maria Sharapova's unexpected upset of defending champion Serena Williams raised hopes that a new rivalry might also be brewing in women's tennis, which has been tennis's biggest draw in recent years.

"Though ratings were down slightly, again it's encouraging," NBC's Connors said. "[Sharapova] is an emerging star with a compelling story."

Because of the July 4th holiday, national ratings for Wimbledon will not be available until Friday.

Wimbledon kicks off a summer tennis season that officials hope will be foster a resurgence in the sport's popularity, particularly for the men's game. Earlier this spring, the U.S. Tennis Association announced the formation of "The US Open Series," which will be comprised of 10 summer hard-court tournaments packaged expressly for TV this year, which featuring bonus money incentives for players.

CBS, ESPN, and NBC will televise events from the series, resulting in over 100 hours of national coverage for the sport over a six-week period. This will occur during a part of the year in which Major League Baseball typically represents the only major sports competition (although this year will see the Olympics in August).

"They have been working really hard to package tennis a little better," said Swangard. "It's been such a fragmented schedule. People will be able to have a better idea of when tennis will be on. They are taking a page out of team sports."

Swangard also compared tennis's tactics to that of professional golf, which has been "sub-branding" sections of its tour schedule.

Advertising support for tennis continues to be solid despite some ups and downs, according to Connors. "We love being associated with this terrific tournament," she said. "This year, sales were good, and certainly, this year's results will sustain this type of strong interest."

Tennis can always fall back on its upscale demographics, said Swangard. "It still has a pretty good audience, with a lot of disposable income," he said.