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Serena's loss hits ticket brokers selling historic US Open Final

Serena Williams

Serena Williams of the United States makes a return to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus during their singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London. Photo: AP/PTI

Bloomberg
Serena Williams's US Open loss was also a loss for brokers holding tickets for the women's final.

The winner of the year's first three major titles, Williams fell 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Roberta Vinci in the semifinals of the US Open. The loss denies Williams the opportunity at the sport's first season Grand Slam since 1988.

Resale ticket prices, pegged to Williams making tennis history, rose to new highs in the past few days. Listings for the women's final averaged $1,186 prior to the match on ticket aggregator SeatGeek, 51 per cent more than the men's final on Sunday ($783).
 

But that soon changed.

The market began moving during the match, after Serena won the first set, then dropped the second. In the third set, with Williams down a break, ticket listings had dropped 20 per cent to $944, Chris Leyden, a content analyst at SeatGeek, said. The cheapest listing - or get-in price -dropped to $279 from $351.

At TiqIQ, another ticket aggregator, the drop was more immediate. Fifteen minutes after the match ended, the average resale listing dropped 50 per cent to $679.19. The get-in price dropped 85 per cent to $40.

Vinci apologised to fans for upsetting a potentially historic event in an on-court interview after the match.

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First Published: Sep 12 2015 | 8:49 PM IST

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