Eurosport is celebrating a record-breaking Australian Open with yesterday’s men’s final between Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal smashing the channels audience records and cementing its status the Home of Grand Slam tennis.

As the game’s greatest rivals faced each other in a Grand Slam final for the first time since 2011, more than 15.2m simultaneous viewers tuned in to Europe’s number one sports destination during yesterday’s final set drama. This represents the biggest ever peak audience in Eurosport history, acing the 11.7m who tuned in to watch Russia vs Poland in an Olympic volleyball qualifier in January 2008.

The dream final between two legends of the game has become Eurosport’s most-watched tennis match of all-time with an average of 5.9m viewers throughout the three and a half hours of pure sporting drama.

Peter Hutton, Eurosport CEO, said: “The viewing figures for the men’s final crown a fantastic first Grand Slam of the year for Eurosport. It’s no surprise this is the most-watched tennis match ever on our platforms as Roger vs Rafa is one of the greatest rivalries in sports history, but to also be the biggest ever audience for any Eurosport programme is a massive achievement.

Eurosport’s coverage of the final has also broken local records receiving the highest ever amount of average viewers for a Eurosport programme in both Spain and the Netherlands. In Spain 610,000 viewers tuned in to support their local hero – Rafa Nadal. Meanwhile in the Netherlands over half a million (503,000) viewers watched the match, equating to 23.2% of the total television audience for the time slot.

Peter Hutton, adds: “We aim to match the quality on the court with quality off it and we continue to deliver on that promise. This tournament has been full of surprises and fairytale storylines and we’ve had every angle covered. Local viewing figures throughout the tournament have shown that our strategy of increased investment in local production and talent is paying dividends.”

ENDS.

Notes to Editors

*Average of 7.2m viewers throughout duration, 11.6m peak during final set.

**First is Russia vs Poland in an Olympic volleyball qualifier in January 2008 with the 11.7m peak viewers.