Determined by the number of respondents who selected Stylish as an attribute they relate to the athlete, the Top 10 Most Stylish Tennis Players has Wozniacki beating out Maria Sharapova, Anna Kournikova, Roger Federer and the Williams sisters, who all have higher overall N-Scores. The N-Score measures name and image awareness, appeal and personality attributes such as sincerity, approachability, experience and influence, both at the U.S. national and local levels.

“From Venus Williams designing her own outfit to Bethanie Mattek-Sands’ tennis ball jacket, tennis stars are redefining tennis whites at Wimbledon,” said Stephen Master, VP, Nielsen Sports. “Unlike football or soccer stars consigned to wearing their team uniforms, tennis players can and are expressing themselves through their diverse duds. It makes for a fun element to the sport.”

Though she has a higher N-Score (169) than any of the Top 10 Most Stylish Tennis Players, Venus Williams fell just short of making the list herself. She comes in at number 11 with 17 percent of N-Score respondents identifying her as Stylish.

Methodology
Using the combined research expertise of Nielsen and E-Poll Market Research, N-Score is an in-depth look at a sports figure’s overall endorsement potential, factoring in the attributes and demographic measures that align brands with endorsers. N-Score Local provides this information for athletes within their team’s local market as well as nationwide. Players are defined as Hall of Fame (receiving an N-Score of 200+), Superstar (100 to 199), MVP (50 to 99), All Star (30 to 49) and Starter (fewer than 30).

-The most-watched global event ever (2008 Beijing Summer Olympics: 4.7 billion viewers)

-The most-watched Super Bowl ever (Giants-Patriots, Super Bowl XLII: 97.5 million viewers)

-The most-watched cable broadcast of all time (Cowboys-Eagles, Monday Night Football: 18.6 million viewers)

-The most-watched cable golf event of all time (Tiger vs. Rocco, U.S. Open Playoff: 4.8 million viewers)

-The most-watched cable baseball game ever (Red Sox-Rays, ALCS Game 7: 13.4 million viewers)

-The most-watched NBA Finals in five years (Celtics-Lakers, NBA Championship Series average: 14.9 million viewers)

-The most-watched NHL regular season game in nine years; most-watched finals in five years (Winter Classic: 2.5 million viewers; Stanley Cup, Penguins–Red Wings average: 4.5 million viewers)

-The most-watched Wimbledon final in eight years (Federer-Nadal: 5.2 million viewers)

The surge in viewership could be attributed to the dramatic storylines behind these games and events, but Nielsen’s analysis shows that new technology is enhancing the sports fan’s experience:

-Ratings for sports events are 20% higher in homes with high-definition TV sets vs. total U.S.

-75 million people visited sports websites in October 2008

-11.6 million unique users logged more than 1.2 billion minutes on fantasy sports sites in 2008

-10.6 million U.S. mobile subscribers accessed sports content via the mobile Web in August 2008

View the full report.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in USA Today.

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With Roger Federer gunning for his fifth U.S. Open title this year, the tournament promises to be better than ever.  But are the U.S. Open’s TV ratings also thriving?

Since 1992, CBS’s U.S. Open telecasts have drawn roughly 2 to 3 million U.S. viewers, on average, each year. 

Last year, CBS’s U.S. Open broadcasts drew an average of 1.96 million viewers per telecast — down from almost 2.2 million viewers in 2006, but up slightly from the smallest U.S. Open TV audience since 1977: 1.94 million in 2004.

The 1999 U.S. Open telecasts claimed the largest U.S. TV audiences in recent memory (almost 3.5 million viewers per telecast).  But in terms of household ratings, the early Eighties remain the true glory days of U.S. Open TV viewership.

The 1980 and 1981 tournaments claimed the highest household TV ratings to date, with 5.8% of all U.S. households tuning in per telecast.  In comparison, the 1999 U.S. Open telecasts drew just 3.5% of all U.S. households.  By 2007, the average rating had decreased to 1.7%.

Below are historic U.S. household ratings (AA%), share, and TV audience estimates (1992 – present) for CBS’s coverage of the U.S. Open tennis tournament since 1977.