The BBC suffered a massive drop in viewing figures for the Wimbledon men’s singles final, which saw Carlos Alcaraz retain his title by beating Novak Djokovic. The young Spaniard produced one of the finest displays of his career to defeat his Serbian rival in straight sets.

It was a repeat of last year’s final, when Alcaraz needed five sets to beat Djokovic and win at SW19 for the first time in his career. However, the viewing figures were much lower this year with millions of sports fans choosing not to tune in to the BBC coverage.

This year’s final peaked at 7.6million viewers on TV, paling in comparison to last year’s peak figures of 11.3m. Streams were also down by nearly a million views, with 3.3m people tuning in on BBC iPlayer compared to 4.1m in 2023.

Barbora Krejcikova’s victory over Jasmine Paolini in the women’s final was also watched by fewer people than last year’s match between Marketa Vondrousova and Ons Jabeur. It had a TV peak of 4.1m viewers, a reduction of around 400,000 when compared to 2023.

There was a slight increase in the number of streams for the women’s final, with 1.9m viewers watching it on iPlayer compared to last year’s figure of 1.3m.

The reduction in Wimbledon viewing numbers may have been influenced by the Euro 2024 final taking place on Sunday. A peak audience of 24.2m watched England’s defeat to Spain on the BBC and ITV, with coverage being shared across the two networks.

It comes just months after Netflix’s documentary series Break Point was cancelled after two seasons due to a lack of interest. It was created as tennis’ answer to Drive to Survive, which brought millions of new fans to motorsport, but failed to have the desired impact.

The ATP, WTA and four Grand Slams opened their doors to the Break Point project in the hope of growing a new audience. The failure of the series was partly down to the absence of big names, with Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal not featuring in either of the two seasons.

It remains to be seen if more people will tune into Wimbledon next year, but there is a possibility that fans could once again be tempted by other sporting events. It will overlap with the Women’s Euros, with the tournament scheduled to take place throughout July.