Emma Raducanu's US Open triumph drew in bigger American TV audience than Djokovic history bid

Emma Raducanu's US Open triumph drew more viewers in America than the men's final, figures show, as the British sensation rounded off her New York adventure by visiting the city's famous Stock Exchange.

The 18 year-old said it was on her "bucket list" to see the "bustling" financial trading hub after studying it during her maths and economics A-levels. "I dreamed of coming here," she said. "The bustle, the busy-ness, I love it."

Raducanu's head for finance could prove useful as she has already scooped almost £2 million in prize money, and is tipped to make more than £100m in endorsements in the coming years amid a global frenzy of interest.

Her final victory against Leylah Fernandez saw 9.2 million tune in to Channel 4's coverage in the UK, and also attracted a bigger audience for ESPN than the men's clash featuring calendar year grand slam-chasing Novak Djokovic.

In America, the Saturday broadcast of the women's final peaked at 3.4 million viewers while the men's final, which saw Daniil Medvedev win his first major title, had a peak of 2.7 million the following day, ESPN said.

Raducanu's match had an average of 2.44 million viewers, a 37 per cent increase over the 2020 final when Naomi Osaka beat Victoria Azarenka. Analysts said it was the fifth time in seven years that the women’s final secured a bigger audience than the men’s on American TV.

American tennis writer Ben Rothenberg was one of those to acknowledge that it was "remarkable that the women remained a bigger draw with two players from outside the top 70 compared to a men’s 1-vs-2 battle for a historic grand slam."

Raducanu, who has been on a tour of American chat show sofas and also attended the Met Gala since her triumph, appeared on CNBC's Closing Bell programme as she visited the Stock Exchange.

"I am on cloud nine, but I'm so excited to be here," she said. "It's the one place on my bucket list I had to check out before leaving New York and I'm just so grateful to everyone who made this possible."

Both Raducanu's parents, Ian and Renee, work in finance and they had encouraged her to prioritise her A-level studies rather than tennis in recent years.

The Stock Exchange, Raducanu explained, is "something that I've been studying at school in my A-levels, and just always had a keen interest. My parents were both in finance, and to see it live is incredible."

She said that she is already thinking about the business side of her industry. "I think it's huge and I would love to learn more about it," she added during her interview with CNBC. "I'm at the beginning of my career now but I'm really excited to learn and develop and, hopefully, along the way I'll learn many more things and experience a lot more and get into the business side a lot more."

She said she been made "extremely welcome here" in New York. "I've got a lot of support at the tournament, but New York is such an exciting city, with so much personality and character and, yeah, Wall Street is just incredible. I dreamed of coming here - the bustle, the busy-ness, I love it."

With her trip to New York drawing to a close, Raducanu added: "I've got a few days rest for recovery that's needed after the last seven weeks but then I'm straight back to training and hungry to get better and come back out and play some more tournaments".

Overall, the 2021 US Open averaged 881,000 viewers on US prime time, a 33 per cent jump over last year and a 13 per cent increase for the two weeks of broadcast, ESPN said.