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Though piece by Martin Ruffell, Director of Audience Development at Brave Bison.
As Roland-Garros approaches, tennis returns to one of its most distinctive stages. The clay, the noise and the long rallies all give the French Open its own rhythm. Grand Slams know how to build prestige around the main draw. The sharper question is whether they are making enough of the week before it begins.
Fan Week, or opening week depending on the tournament, should be one of tennis’ most valuable growth windows. It gives rights holders a chance to bring people on site earlier, build digital attention before the first round, create more space for partners and make the tournament feel bigger than the match schedule alone.
Its potential is still unevenly used. Some tournaments have turned the pre-event window into a meaningful commercial and content property. Others remain more cautious, shaped by tradition, logistics or space. That caution is understandable. Wimbledon and Roland-Garros do not have the same physical footprint as Melbourne Park, where the Australian Open can spread fan activity across a large, flexible site. Each Slam also has its own character, and any new format has to feel natural within that setting.
The Australian Open has shown the value of starting earlier
The Australian Open has become the clearest example of how to treat opening week as a serious audience and commercial opportunity. Its 2026 Fan Week generated 63 million YouTube views, up 231% year-on-year. First round main draw viewership then rose 230% to 18.5 million views.
Those numbers show the pre-tournament week can do far more than fill time before the draw. It can create momentum that carries into the main event.
Part of the Australian Open’s success comes from its wider personality. It has long felt like the more relaxed, fan-friendly Slam, with Roger Federer famously dubbing it the “Happy Slam”. That gives it room to stretch the format without making the whole thing feel forced. The tennis still sits at the centre, but the week around it feels more open and participatory, with players, fans, families and commercial partners all given a natural role in the experience.
The One Point Slam captured that particularly well. The format was simple enough for casual fans to understand instantly. One point. Immediate jeopardy. A million Australian dollars for the winner. If a top player missed a first serve, they could be out before the crowd had settled. It also created a proper story, with an amateur player beating professionals on the way to winning the prize. You do not need to understand rankings or seedings to enjoy that drama.
Built for distribution from the start
For rights holders, the value sits in the format itself. Fan Week works when it gives people a reason to watch before the tournament has properly started, and a reason to keep sharing the best moments afterwards.
The Australian Open’s success came from creating moments that could live in different formats. The live stream of the One Point Slam gave fans a full event to watch and engage with through the YouTube live chat, whilst cutdown moments and YouTube Shorts, allowed fans both core and casual to experience the unrivalled drama we witnessed.
During the main draw, the sport itself takes priority. The schedule is dense, the stakes are established, and the biggest matches naturally dominate attention. Fan Week gives tournaments more room to test formats, create lighter moments and bring players into settings that feel less controlled.
It also helps platforms work harder once the tournament begins. Building watch time and engagement before the first round means audiences are already interacting with tournament content. When match highlights arrive, there is a warmer audience waiting for them.
Every Grand Slam needs its own version
The biggest mistake would be treating the Australian Open as a template to copy. A million-dollar one-point tournament might work in Melbourne. It would feel very different at Wimbledon or Roland-Garros.
The US Open offers another useful route. Its decision to move mixed doubles into Fan Week and build it around high-profile pairings created a new talking point before the main draw. Pairings such as Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz gave fans a reason to care, while player comments in press conferences extended the story beyond the event.
The strongest formats will fit the identity of the tournament while giving fans something they can immediately understand. Roland-Garros has a chance to lean into what makes clay-court tennis so distinct. Wimbledon has history and restraint on its side, which means experimentation would need to feel more considered.
Fan Week also has to work commercially. If a tournament can bring people on site earlier and give them a reason to stay, the value starts to build around the whole event. Partners get more room to show up properly, while fans get a lower-pressure way to experience the tournament.
The challenge is pace. Rights holders should be ambitious, but they also need to build credibility over time. Trying to replicate the Australian Open or US Open instantly risks overwhelming the audience and diluting what makes each Slam different.
The smarter route is to start with formats that feel true to the tournament, easy for fans to understand and useful for wider commercial models.