A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
It just got started, but Novak Djokovic is already out of the U.S. Open. Venus Williams is also out of the singles, but Carlos Alcaraz, Naomi Osaka and lots of others are going to be on the tennis court today. Joining us to discuss the game so far and what might come next is Jon Wertheim, who's a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. Jon, let's start off with Djokovic. What's happened?
JON WERTHEIM: What happened? In four letters - time. Thirty-nine-years-old.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter) Oh, no.
WERTHEIM: But he wasn't feeling well. He said - you know, the quote was, "I despised every minute out there." But, you know, this is someone who has had great longevity. He is still competing at this level, but you kind of got the feeling last night that the window has at last closed.
MARTÍNEZ: When an athlete says that they despise being - that - you know, that's a sign of something.
WERTHEIM: Exactly.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. All right, so let's look ahead to the men's singles division. Carlos Alcaraz of Spain is back to defend his title. He has an injury, though, to his right wrist. Do you think opponents will be able to capitalize on that injury somehow?
WERTHEIM: That is the overarching question of the men's draw. It's a very strange situation where the No. 1 player, Jannik Sinner, he's injured, and Carlos Alcaraz has not played since April on account of the risk that you referenced. He says he's ready to go. So you kind of feel like healthy risk. He's the favorite to defend his title he won last year. And yet if there's one injury a tennis player does not want, it's hard to mask a wrist injury. So if the risk is not 100%, I suspect he could go by way of Djokovic.
MARTÍNEZ: Is he a righty?
WERTHEIM: He is a righty. Yeah. But, you know, it's just you - best-of-five tennis, a lot of forehands and backhands. And also, I mean, he hasn't played a match since mid-April, so you sort of wonder what his match readiness is. But, you know, in a vacuum, he's the player to beat.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus holds the No. 1 singles ranking on the women's side. We also got Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula. Who is favorite to win the women's title?
WERTHEIM: I think it's Coco Gauff, who was the previous champion here three years ago and is playing very well this summer. I think a lot of that is sort of momentum in form coming in. Sabalenka's the No. 1 seed. She won this event last year. She won it the previous year as well, but she has not won a tournament since April and does not look worthy of her No. 1 ranking. So it's a strange situation where she is the two-time defending champion and the top seed, and yet, I don't think she is the favorite.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. And I think everyone likes underdog stories and people who aren't so known to advance, but I think also a tournament like the U.S. Open would want its big names at the end.
WERTHEIM: It's funny because you're absolutely right. The organizers, the suits, want the stars on the stands. That's why, you know, Venus Williams at age 46 was playing on big courts, and yet fans and I think the locker room itself - everybody else is happy for the underdogs to succeed. Exactly.
MARTÍNEZ: Prices have been pretty high this tournament. How did that happen?
WERTHEIM: Prices have been colossally high this tournament. That's a great question. It's a real issue here. It's just become unaffordable for so many tennis fans, unfortunately. It's a combination of things. I mean, New York basically has the most lax reselling, i.e., scalping laws you'll ever see. It's very - you know, scalping is legal. It's very easily done. The U.S. Open has a partnership with Ticketmaster, Live Nation, which we could do a whole other segment on.
And the truth is, the USTA that runs this not only gets the ticket sale price, but they get a scrape. They get a cut of the resale, so they don't have a great incentive to chill this market as they could. It's a big topic. I suppose the free-market economists would say something's worth what people pay for it, but it's priced out a lot of fans, which is unfortunate.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated. Jon, thanks a lot.
WERTHEIM: You got it.
(SOUNDBITE OF CCFX'S "THE ONE TO WAIT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
