Serena Williams reacts throughout a post-match ceremony after shedding to Belinda Bencic of Switzerland on Day 5 of the Nationwide Financial institution Open, a part of the Hologic WTA Tour, at Sobeys Stadium on August 10, 2022 in Toronto, Ontario.
Robert Prange | Getty Photographs
As Serena Williams prepares for her final U.S. Open earlier than retirement, tickets to see the tennis legend play are in excessive demand.
The U.S. Tennis Affiliation offered over 16,500 tickets alone on Aug. 9, when the tennis champion introduced her upcoming retirement, in accordance with the group — extra tickets offered than the earlier seven days mixed. The event kicks off Monday, Aug. 29.
“We are actually mainly offered out for Monday (Opening night time), Tuesday and Wednesday nights,” a USTA spokesperson instructed CNBC.
The USTA wouldn’t disclose monetary projections for the famed Queens tennis event, and Williams’ announcement got here so near the beginning of the event that it is unlikely her retirement would have introduced in extra sponsorships, that are normally set effectively prematurely.
Secondary ticket reseller website Stubhub stated each day common gross sales in {dollars} have greater than doubled and the variety of tickets offered per day has greater than tripled. The favored ticket website stated it has seen a 40% bounce in gross sales since Williams’ announcement.
“U.S. Open demand continues to choose up as we method one week out from the beginning of first-round motion. We encourage followers to get tickets now in the event that they need to go, since legends like Rafael Nadal or Serena Williams advancing in play can have an enormous impact on demand,” stated Adam Budelli, a spokesperson for StubHub.
On ticketing web site TicketIQ, US Open costs are up 34% since Williams’ retirement announcement. Costs for this yr’s Ladies’s Last have additionally surged in current days, with the typical worth leaping as excessive as $1,289.
“The $1,289 checklist worth can also be the most costly Ladies’s Last we have ever tracked, 37% greater than the earlier costliest, the 2019 Last, which was additionally the final time Serena made the U.S. Open Last,” TicketIQ stated.
“Regardless of odds makers placing Serena as simply the 13th more than likely lady to win the 2022 US Open, ticket sellers are pricing the finals as if she’ll be there,” TicketIQ CEO Jesse Lawrence instructed CNBC.
Williams has received the U.S. Open six occasions in her profession, the latest win coming in 2014. She’s coming off a troublesome loss to Britain’s Emma Raducanu within the opening spherical of the Western & Southern Open, a Ladies’s Tennis Affiliation occasion in Mason, Ohio.
“I do not know if I will probably be able to win New York. However I’ll attempt,” Williams wrote concerning the event within the Vogue journal piece asserting her retirement.
The tennis icon turns 41 subsequent month and says she’s able to concentrate on rising her household after a long time of specializing in tennis. She is married to Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian and has a 5-year-old daughter, Olympia.
Throughout her prolific profession, Williams has received 23 grand slam titles, the second most of all time, behind Margaret Cour, and over $94 million in profession winnings, twice as a lot as another feminine athlete. She’s additionally been instrumental in bringing African People and women into the game.
Forbes estimates the tennis star’s web price at round $260 million.
“I began enjoying tennis with the objective of successful the U.S. Open. I did not suppose previous that. After which I simply saved successful,” she wrote in Vogue.
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