Ash Barty made Australian Open history when she won the 2022 women’s final on Saturday night, however she also broke another record.

The match between Barty and Danielle Collins became the highest rating Australian Open women’s final since viewership records began and attracted more viewers than all but three men’s final matches over the last 21 years.

3.6 million viewers nationally watched the game with peak viewership at 4.3 million.

Barty is the first Australian to win the tournament in 44 years.

Australian Open tournament director and Tennis Australia CEO, Craig Tiley, said: “At the end of the day, I think tennis won.”

“This weekend has been a historic weekend, not only for tennis, sport in Australia and particularly having Ash.

“Quite a few high emotional moments for me personally and also the entire team and it was capped off in the early hours of this morning…

“I think it is going to be hard to top it off.

“It is hard to think this happened and everything else that happened and everything else that happened in between.

“An amazing two weeks.

“Everyone will reflect and say they probably witnessed the best sporting event in the history of our game,” Tiley told Today.

To put into perspective the popularity of the women’s final match, Australian tennis star, Lleyton Hewitt’s final against Marat Safin in 2005 had 5.7 million viewers and the 2003 Rugby World Cup had 4 million viewers.

Channel Nine director of television, Michael Healy, said: “The Australian Open is the undisputed number one summer sport, and we’re thrilled that so many viewers tuned in to see Ash Barty’s courageous victory.”

Channel Nine also recorded almost 250,00 live view streamers on 9Now during the match.

“Our [broadcast video on demand] numbers set a new Australian Open record, with almost 250,000 viewers live-streaming the match on 9Now,” Healy said.

In celebration of the close of the tournament, the Australian Open announced 10,000 hours of free court hire for grassroots tennis clubs over the next month.

Tennis Australia chief tennis officer, Tom Larner, said: “There’s simply no better way to celebrate the success of our Aussie players than by giving free access to tennis to as many people as we can, right across the country.”

The hire program was designed to increase tennis participation after a post-tournament surge in participants of the sport.

There has been a 37% increase in adult participation in the sport and a 29% in children playing.

“Connecting grassroots tennis to all the excitement of the Australian Open plays a crucial role in growing interest and participation in the sport at all levels, and for all ages,” Larner said.