‘It’s like a tsunami’: US Open sales explode over Serena Williams retirement
The ‘Serena effect’ has led to an unprecedented spike in ticket sales to the New York Grand Slam after the tennis champion announced it would be her final game, set and match.
The US Open in on course to a complete sell out after Serena Williams announced her retirement to focus on having a second child.
The day Williams announced her retirement, ticket sales increased by five compared to a day earlier with 13,000 sold in the immediate hours after the announcement, including 4,500 for opening night.
“You talk about the Serena effect, it’s like a tsunami,” USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier told The New York Post. “That’s a spectacular day. In fact, it may be unprecedented.”
Widmaier added that the cheapest USD$35 opening night tickets are being resold for up to $7,000, or almost AUD $10,000.
Williams said she’s shifting her focus from Grand Slams to growing a family, revealing plans for a second baby after her shock retirement.
The tennis legend, 40, mother to four-year-old Olympia, opened up in a first-person essay for Vogue about her decision to begin an “evolution” away from tennis.
“In the last year, Alexis and I have been trying to have another child, and we recently got some information from my doctor that put my mind at ease and made me feel that whenever we’re ready, we can add to our family,” she writes.
“I definitely don’t want to be pregnant again as an athlete. I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out.”
Williams has previously written about the complications surrounding the birth of her daughter Alexis Olympia, in 2017.
She told Vogue that she was bedridden for six weeks after the birth following an emergency caesarean section.
“I almost died after giving birth to my daughter, Olympia,” she wrote.
Williams said the pregnancy had gone smoothly before she encountered problems: “First my C-section wound popped open due to the intense coughing I endured as a result of the embolism.
“I returned to surgery, where the doctors found a large hematoma, a swelling of clotted blood, in my abdomen. And then I returned to the operating room for a procedure that prevents clots from travelling to my lungs.”
Her next and final attempt to match the record set by Margaret Court will be at the US Open in New York later this month.
“There comes a time in life when we have to decide to move in a different direction,” she said on Instagram.
“That time is always hard when you love something so much. My goodness do I enjoy tennis. But now, the countdown has begun.”
Williams was in her early 30s, and pregnant with daughter Olympia, when she won her 23rd major at the Australian Open in 2017.
Having failed to win another since and crashing out of Wimbledon in the first round, Williams revealed why her next attempt will be her last.
“I have to focus on being a mom, my spiritual goals and finally discovering a different, but just exciting Serena. I’m gonna relish these next few weeks,” she said.
This week, Williams returned to the hardcourt for the first time in 18 months for the WTA Toronto tournament where she reached the second round with a straight sets victory over Spaniard Nuria Parrizas Diaz.
The former top-ranked player wrote in the September edition of Vogue that she was “evolving away” from the sport after the US Open.
“Unfortunately I wasn’t ready to win Wimbledon this year,” she wrote.
“And I don’t know if I will be ready to win New York. But I’m going to try. And the lead-up tournaments will be fun. I know there’s a fan fantasy that I might have tied Margaret that day in London, then maybe beat her record in New York, and then at the trophy ceremony say, ‘See ya!’ I get that. It’s a good fantasy.
“But I’m not looking for some ceremonial, final on-court moment. I’m terrible at goodbyes, the world’s worst.”
After winning her first Grand Slam as a 17-year-old at the 1999 US Open, Williams went on to win Wimbledon and the Australian Open singles titles seven times each. She’s won the US Open six times, and the French Open three times.
“I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me,” she said.
“I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people. Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution.
“I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.
“A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family.
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Originally published as ‘It’s like a tsunami’: US Open sales explode over Serena Williams retirement
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