They’re two of the greatest players in the history of tennis, the stars of perhaps the finest match in the sport’s history. When Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal meet Friday in the semifinals of this year’s Wimbledon tournament, they’ll command a worldwide audience ... and some phenomenal ticket prices, too.
How much to see Federer-Nadal?
Immediately after Federer and Nadal won their quarterfinals matches to set up yet another titanic showdown, ticket prices on Stubhub started — started — at about £7000, the equivalent of nearly $9,000 in U.S. dollars.
Both players are in the late sets of their careers, with Federer already possibly closing the door on returning to clay at the French Open. That makes this matchup, one with both still relatively close to their primes, one of the last opportunities to see two legends face off ... and ticket prices are appropriately stratospheric.
For comparison purposes: this year’s Super Bowl featuring the Rams and Patriots had a get-in-the-door price of about $3,500 the morning of the game. Anecdotal reports put the cheapest tickets for the NBA Finals’ Game Six in Oakland at about $500, while the previous game in Raptors-mad Toronto was about $2,000.
Other sports had similar steep costs, though not quite Wimbledon-level. Get-in-the-door tickets for this year’s Duke-Carolina game in Cameron Indoor Stadium were more than $3,000 ... and Zion Williamson lasted all of 36 seconds in that one before his shoe detonated. And the Masters, where Tiger Woods won his 15th major earlier this year, ran from about $2,000 to $3,000 per day.
What’s their all-time series record?
Nadal and Federer have met 39 times, most recently in the semifinals of the French Open, where Nadal won 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 en route to yet another title at Roland Garros. Nadal holds both the overall lead at 24-15 and the finals lead at 14-10. (Nadal’s 6-0 record at the French skews those totals somewhat.)
At Wimbledon, Federer holds a slim 2-1 edge. But the one loss came in 2008 in perhaps the greatest match in tennis history. A five-set masterpiece delayed multiple times by rain, the match was the longest final in Wimbledon history at 4 hours and 48 minutes, and broke Federer’s 65-match winning streak on grass.
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