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Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - UK

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Cristiano Ronaldo and Andy Murray Searches Soar

July 03, 2006

After England's defeat after crashing out again on penalties, UK internet users switched their attention to Wimbledon, where Andy Murray, a British tennis player's entry to the last 16 offers hopes for consolation. Whilst England fans are busy vilifying Ronaldo, we wanted to share some fun stats from our search data.

UK internet searches for Scotland’s Andy Murray spiked as the tennis player cruised to a straight sets victory against two time Wimbledon finalist and number 3 seed Andy Roddick. Share of UK searches for "andy murray" spiked in the week ending 1st July 2006, rising six-fold, and look set to overtake searches for once golden boy Wayne Rooney. Share of searches for "andy murray" were less than 1% behind searches for "wayne rooney" last week.

Following controversy over the on-field dispute between Wayne Rooney and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, which resulted in a red card being shown to Rooney, UK internet searches for "cristiano ronaldo" also spiked. In the week ending 1st July 2006, searches for the Portuguese winger rose 14% on the previous week. Growing speculation on Cristiano Ronaldo's reported interest in joining Real Madrid after the end of the World Cup is likely to see searches for the Manchester United player continue to rise.
Footie Searches.png

The most searched-for football player in the week ending 1st July 2006 was David Beckham, who announced that he was quitting as England captain the morning after England lost to Portugal. Cristiano Ronaldo was the second most searched-for player, followed by Ronaldinho, Wayne Rooney, Peter Crouch and Michael Owen.

Whilst visits to football websites far outpace those to tennis sites, online interest seems to be waning in the World Cup as it grows for Wimbledon – and the nation's hopes for Murray. Visits to websites in the Hitwise Football category declined 4% last week while they more than doubled to websites in the Tennis category. The Wimbledon Championships site took the #1 rank in the Tennis category last week, with visits up five-fold and the site's ranking increasing from 1,173 among all sites to 214.

All eyes are on Andy Murray this week, as national attention turns from Germany back to SW19.

Posted by Heather Hopkins at 01:23 PM | (0) | (0)