Federer v Nadal? Borg v McEnroe? Top YouTube tennis hits

Television has its ratings, YouTube has its “views”.

And using those views, we’ve been given a picture of which tennis matches are the most popular with fans.

We implemented a simple criterion: the video had to feature the full match, or highlights of the entire match, to make them comparable.

We excluded single sets, set highlights, hot shots, controversies (like when Maria Sharapova hit Serena Williams with a ball), exhibition matches (like Federer v Sampras at Madison Square Garden) and junior matches (like when Nadal and Gasquet met as 13 year-olds), many of which attracted views in the millions. We also ignored videos featuring the same match (only with less views) as one already in our list.

Among the top 30 there were only three women’s matches. But there were several just outside the top 30 that generated plenty of views, including Muguruza v Venus in last year’s Wimbledon final, Australian Open matches between Serena and Sharapova in 2015 and 2016, and the London 2012 Olympics quarterfinal between Sharapova and Clijsters.

Just two of the men’s matches in the list featured two non-Big Four players.

Viewer numbers will fluctuate, but were correct at the time of publication.