"Another day of spreading misinformation" - Tennis fans criticize Rennae Stubbs for putting out inaccurate Australian Open 2023 viewership numbers
When the 2023 Australian Open viewership numbers were released at the start of February, former tennis player Rennae Stubbs was quick to bring up a statistic that said the women's singles final garnered more viewers than the men's singles final.
Stubbs, however, was later condemned by tennis fans for spreading misinformation. She took to social media on Thursday (February 2) to share a post that stated that the final match between Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina had amassed about 130,000 more viewers than Novak Djokovic's title clash with Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Stubbs used this as an example to state that women's sports are worth sponsoring.
"Don’t tell me Women’s sports isn’t worth sponsoring or showing on TV!," she tweeted.
🏼
Don’t tell me Women’s sports isn’t worth sponsoring or showing on TV! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 https://t.co/cThK7ad7k7
However, it was later confirmed that the information was wrong as the numbers were inaccurate. As per official reports from the Australian Open media release, the men's final drew a maximum of 2.311 million viewers with an average of 1.747 million, whereas the women's final only peaked at 1.437 million viewers with an average audience of 1.036 million.
Fans were left annoyed with Stubbs for spreading misinformation through social media. One fan felt that it was suggested that she was not new to spreading misinformation.
"Just another day of Rennae spreading misinformation. Embarrasing," a fan said.
@rennaestubbs Just another day of Rennae spreading misinformation 😄
Embarrassing.
Journalist Stuart Fraser shared the official viewership figures and pointed out the contradiction in the numbers from Stubbs' post. He, therefore, urged the Australian to delete her post to prevent the further spread of misinformation.
"Hi Rennae. As I thought earlier, the ratings in that graphic you tweeted earlier are indeed misleading (correct numbers below courtesy of Tennis Australia). You may wish to issue a clarification or even delete given the amount of shares that piece of misinformation is getting?," he tweeted.
@rennaestubbs Hi Rennae. As I thought earlier, the ratings in that graphic you tweeted earlier are indeed misleading (correct numbers below courtesy of Tennis Australia). You may wish to issue a clarification or even delete given the amount of shares that piece of misinformation is getting? https://t.co/Gq5C7m8Ium
Another user indicated that such numbers and pictures could be made up by anyone as they asked Stubbs for relevant sources backing her information, saying:
"Anyone could’ve done that photo and made up some numbers to go with it. Where is there source"
@rennaestubbs @TennisUpdates23 Anyone could’ve done that photo and made up some numbers to go with it. Where is there source
Here are a few other fan reactions:
@rennaestubbs I believe you got confused with the audience watching De Minaur VS Djokovic.
So could you please delete your tweets, apologise & say that indeed you got it wrong?
@CraigTiley @AustralianOpen @atptour please tell Rennae that her tweet is false information. ❗️ https://t.co/2TweGySY65
@rennaestubbs The most sensible thing is to delete a
tweet with misinformation; unless
the point is to spread inaccurate data.
@rennaestubbs Sources? Your hatred?
She is making up the numbers, at least for the men's final.
She's the most millitant anti-Djokovic person I've seen yet, she's been absolutely relentless, my goodness.
Talk about seething. twitter.com/rennaestubbs/s… https://t.co/bKfANjrGUw
Poor people who liked and RT not knowing that this incompetent person is deliberately sharing misinformation. 🙄 twitter.com/rennaestubbs/s… https://t.co/XkmvY4fCML
she could have googled it before sharing this 
She is gone nuts and spreading incorrect information 😂 she could have googled it before sharing this 😂 twitter.com/rennaestubbs/s… https://t.co/rIva3pWgwk
@rennaestubbs You got this one wrong, be professional for once and delete this misinformation
mobile.twitter.com/rennaestubbs/s… https://t.co/okA6qYbAM0
Australian Open 2023 garners highest attendance record for any Grand Slam tournament
The 2023 Australian Open recorded the highest-ever attendance in any Grand Slam tournament so far. More than 900,000 tennis fans attended various matches over two weeks at Melbourne Park.
This year's Asia-Pacific Major broke its 2020 record of 812,174 spectators. Around 63,120 fans were recorded attending the qualifier matches of the tournament and the numbers for the final rose to 902,312.