Serena's US Open exit sends tickets prices for the women's finals tumbling

Serena Williams’s semifinal loss to Roberta Vinci not only shattered her dream of winning a Calendar Slam but have also dealt a blow to ticket prices for the US Open women’s final. [caption id=“attachment_2431312” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Serena Williams at the US Open. AFP[/caption] The excitement of seeing defending champion Serena go for the Calendar Grand Slam who was led to the women’s singles final being sold out before the men’s singles final for the first time in history, according to an ESPN report. However, her shock 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 defeat on Friday changed all that. Instead of Serena staking her claim to be the greatest women’s tennis player of all time, the final now features two players who have combined to win zero Grand Slams before this. Sure, it is the first women’s final to feature two players from Italy, but that isn’t the same kind of history. As a result, the resale price of tickets plummetted to as low as $50, according to a report by CNN.  The report, citing information from TiqIQ, a ticket tracking site, said that the average price for unsold tickets for the women’s singles final ticket had dropped to $1,103.14 from $1,411,98 before the semi-final (a drop of 22 percent). The cheapest available ticket was now $124, compared to $271 before Serena lost (down 54 percent). Chris Leyden, a content analyst at ticket aggregator SeatGeek was quoted by  Bloomberg as saying, “With Serena’s Grand Slam bid falling just short, we expect, and have already started to see, the demand and prices drop for tickets to Saturday’s final." Serena’s loss is one of the greatest upsets in tennis history. The 21-time Grand Slam champion was on the verge of completing the Calendar Slam for the time since Steffi Graf did in 1988. Serena was also won her previous 33 matches at the Grand Slams. In contrast, her opponent, Vinci, had never even reached a Grand Slam semi-final before, and had never taken a set off Serena either.