When Roger Federer and Serena Williams retired from tennis last year, they left their fans with an emptiness in their hearts. Everyone believed that the sport would collapse in their absence when they left. But more than six months have passed, and the sport is doing fantastically. Even to the point where their absence isn’t really having a particularly detrimental effect on the tournaments. Such as the recent 2023 Italian Open, which was held in Rome.

Recently, however, FITP President Angelo Binaghi made a startling revelation regarding how the Rome tournament was a big success despite the absence of the two retired tennis legends and Rafael Nadal, who was out of the tournament because of an injury.

The Italian Open was least affected by Roger Federer and Serena Williams’ absence 

Just before the French Open, the Italian Open tournament was a huge hit. It displayed some amazing new-generation tennis players playing at their best. As the rising generation did everything on their part to make the tournament a huge success, not having stellar names like Serena and Federer didn’t create a negative impact in terms of fan engagement.

In a recent interview with TennisWorldUSA, the president of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation talked about how even after the retirement of the tennis legends, the 2023 edition of the Rome tournament had an amazing crowd, creating opportunities for other rising tennis players.

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Not only that, he also talked about how their absence didn’t create much difference in the tournament. He said, “The passion of the crowd now goes beyond the individual presences of the best players on the Tour. Of course, probably Nadal’s participation would have given a further boost to the box office. And the same would have guaranteed, during the tournament, a path extended by Jannik Sinner.” 

However, earlier during the Australian Open, the absence of Federer and Williams was somehow pointed out as the reason for the poor TV ratings.

Federer and Williams’ absence created an Australian Open void 

The first major tournament after the tennis giants’ retirement was the Australian Open. While there were other tennis greats like Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic who were there to dominate the Australian court, the Spaniard was forced to withdraw from the competition early due to an injury. The top athletes’ absence from the competition made a significant difference in the TV ratings.

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According to tennis journalist Jon Wertheim, the absence of three of the biggest tennis players was one of the reasons why the Grand Slam tournament had the poorest TV rating this year. In addition, their absence also overshadowed the Serbian tennis player’s 10th Australian Open victory. It was considered the least-watched men’s final in a decade.