The 2015 U.S. Open wrapped up on Sunday. While the men’s pre-tournament Twitter favourite, Novak Djokovic, proved the masses right by claiming the 10th major of his career, the big story was Serena Williams’s collapse in the semi-finals.
She was unable to complete the calendar Grand Slam by winning all four of the year’s majors, instead bowing out to unseeded Italian Roberta Vinci in what has been called “one of the biggest surprises in sport”.
Accordingly, immediately after the match, Ms. Vinci’s Twitter stock began rising. In the first 11 days of the tournament she was mentioned a modest 6,900 times, but the three days after the victory saw that number jump to 44,944 — representing an average increase of 2,289 per cent per day. Not even eventual champion Flavia Pennetta received more mentions than Ms. Vinci.
But despite her defeat, Serena still absolutely dominated share of voice among the pre-tournament top 10 ranked women:
Contrary to what you may believe, however, a first place Twitter share of voice does not a championship win, and Ms. Williams will have to wait for 2016 have another crack at things. Here’s hoping that at next year’s tournament, the word “Serena” won’t appear in more than a quarter of all tweets that include the word “lost”.
