Official US Open Web Site Continues Record-Setting Pace of Grand Slam Tennis on the ‘Net
IBM and the USTA Create Most Highly Trafficked Grand Slam Web Site in History
WHITE PLAINS, NY (September 16, 1998) – The official 1998 US Open Web site ( http://www.usopen.org), powered by IBM for the United States Tennis Association (USTA), recorded a massive 382 million hits* and 242 million page views during the two week tournament. As fans around the world turned to the ‘Net for up-to-the-point scores, news and images from the US Open Tennis Championships, they demonstrated the increasing popularity of Grand Slam tennis on the Web. The record traffic totals on the US Open Web site surpassed the marks set only months ago by the official sites of the French Open and Wimbledon, also powered by IBM.
‘Net Traffic Highlights
Total Server Hits: 382.0 million (Peak: 44.7 million on September 8)
Total Page Views: 242.1 million (Peak: 29.2 million on September 2)
Total Visits: 10.3 million (Peak: 1.3 million on September 8)
Peak Traffic Rate: 119,056 hits per minute, recorded on Tuesday, September 8, at the end of the Agassi/Kucera match, concurrent with the Ivanisevic/Rafter match
In the first two days of the 1998 US Open, the official Web site recorded more page views than during the entire 1997 tournament. In the first three days, the official site surpassed last year’s total hits for the tournament.
To put the US Open Web site figures in perspective, the official Web sites of the other three Grand Slam tournaments in 1998 (Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon) together recorded 398 million hits and 180 million page views.
Official US Open Web Site Year-to-Year Comparison:
1998: 382.0 million total hits; 242.1 milliontotal page views; 10.3 million total visits.
1997: 63.6 million total hits; 7.1 million total page views; .8 million total vists.
Y-t-Y Growth:: 600% total hits; 3400% total page views; 1200% total visits.
Tennis fans and Web enthusiasts from 157 countries visited the official tournament Web site. Nearly 60% of the visitor were from the United States. The top five countries from which traffic came are the USA, Australia, Canada, Japan and Chile. The site also recorded over 11,000 comments in the Guest Book.
Fans sent 30,251 electronic postcards to tennis players at the US Open via the official Web site.
Other highlights from IBM at the 1998 US Open
During the tournament, NUMBER fans tested their serve speeds at the IBM SpeedZone, raising $AMOUNT for the USTA Foundation and the City Parks Foundation.
On September 8, IBM and the USTA announced that they renewed their partnership through 2001.
IBM Pressure Player Statistics, five composite statistics which measure how well a player performs in pressure situations, debuted at the US Open this year. Since the second round of play, eventual champion Patrick Rafter was the highest ranked “Best Overall Pressure Player” in the men’s singles draw; since the quarterfinals, eventual champion Lindsay Davenport was the highest ranked “Best Overall Pressure Player” in the women’s singles draw.
The male and female tennis players with the fastest serves, as clocked by the IBM Speed Serve System during the 1998 tournament, were Thomas Johansson at 136 mph and Venus Williams at 117 mph.
Next in Tennis: Follow the latest news from the USTA year-round at http://www.usta.com. Next January, look for the official Web site of the 1999 Australian Open at http://www.ausopen.org, powered by IBM for Tennis Australia.
IBM is dedicated to helping customers including many of the world’s premier professional sports organizations, leverage the value of the Internet and e-business.
Products and Services involved in IBM’s US Open solution: ThinkPads, IBM PC 300s, IntelliStations, Aptivas, RS/6000 SPs using IBM’s AIX operating system, IBM printers, Lotus Notes, Lotus Domino, DB2, Net.Commerce, eNetwork Dispatcher, IBM Global Services, IBM Global Network, IBM Interactive Media, IBM SurfAid Analytics, LAN Network Manager, Distributed File System (DFS), ADSTAR Distributed Storage Manager (ADSM) and RAMAC Array storage units.
Source: IBM