A previous Andy Murray battle also features among the Beeb’s top Wimbledon hits
MORE than five million people tuned in to watch Emma Raducanu’s incredible Wimbledon battle with Aryna Sabalenka on Friday night.
Located in a prime time slot on BBC One, the match received the Beeb’s third-highest ratings for any non-final contest in the last three years, and the most of the this tournament so far.
The enthralling contest, which saw world No1 Sabalenka narrowly beat British favourite Raducanu 7-6 6-4, was watched by a peak audience of 5.32 million.
Raducanu’s brilliant third round effort also received more than 1.2 million streaming requests on BBC iPlayer.
The most watched non-final match of the last four years at Wimbledon was Raducanu’s fourth round with Lulu Sun last year, which peaked at 5.47 million viewers.
Second was Andy Murray’s battle with John Isner back in 2022, which peaked at 5.34 million.
This year’s tournament has already been a smash hit with viewers watching at home.
Across the first five days of the tournament, the BBC received more than 31 million online streaming requests.
This was a more than 50 per cent increase on last year’s numbers.
Raducanu’s three matches drew incredible interest from British fans, with Friday night in particular played in front of a raucous Centre Court crowd.
Fans have also been enamoured by matches involving fellow Brits Sonay Kartal and Cameron Norrie – as well as former champions Carlos Alcaraz and of course, Novak Djokovic.