Serena Williams, the No. 1 women’s tennis player in the world, may be going for history at the U.S. Open this year if she gets to the final, but she’s made history before even swinging her racquet.
In anticipation of her advancing to the championship match at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens, the younger Williams sister has reportedly helped the women’s final sell out before the men’s final for the first time, according to the United States Tennis Association.
Chris Widmaier, a USTA spokesperson, believes this is the first time that the women’s championship match has sold before the men’s, especially as the women’s match doesn’t always sell out, according to ESPN.
Serena is bidding to become the first woman to win all four major tennis titles, the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, since Steffi Graf accomplish the feat in 1988. She’s also looking to tie Graf’s major title count of 22 should she be victorious in the final, which is scheduled for September 12.
And not only are the tickets reportedly sold out, they’re also going for more than usual. The USTA said tickets are selling for about three times as much as usual. Per ESPN:
Ticket resale market tracker TiqIQ says the average listed price on the resale market for the women’s final is now $859, versus a men’s final average resale ticket price of $897. That $38 difference in resale prices is remarkable considering TiqIQ says the smallest difference in price between the men’s and women’s finals was in 2012, when the average ticket price for the men’s final was $150 more than for the women’s final.