"It's clear as day what's making it inaccessible to many" - Tennis fans cite expensive tickets as reason for low Italian Open attendance
The turnout at the Italian Open has been relatively small so far, and many fans online believe that expensive tickets are the reason behind that.
Aryna Sabalenka and Caroline Garcia were in action on Thursday, May 11 but there were plenty of seats at Center Court and Pietrangeli.
Yep, I know Roma is playing today but… this is a terrible look. With an Italian playing…
Sabalenka and Garcia’s matches also pretty empty.
Not sure if making these tournaments 10 days long was a great idea after all. https://t.co/6uFjqFfcUg
The Grand Stand Arena saw similar scenes when Felix Auger-Aliassime played a thrilling match against Alexei Popyrin that lasted three hours and 15 minutes. The second-round match between Ons Jabeur and Paula Badosa did not attract a lot of people either.
Grandstand, where a top 10 ATP player is playing a 3h15 thriller, isn’t full either.
Ticket prices? People not coming as usual till the second week? Odd cause this never happens in Rome. twitter.com/stroppa_del/st…
Badosa vs. Jabeur.
Replies indicate the problem is ticket prices.
It's my last tweet about the subject but yeah... it's sad. https://t.co/fxfni2m11t
Several tennis fans have now opined that the ticket prices, which started at €90, are a key reason behind the empty seats. One fan claimed that the high prices have made the tournament action "inaccessible."
"The ticket prices for Rome are insane. Everyone keeps trying to make tennis accessible and tried to mess with the format… when it’s clear as day what is making it inaccessible to many," the fan's tweet read.
The ticket prices for Rome are insane. Everyone keeps trying to make tennis accessible and tried to mess with the format… when it’s clear as day what is making it inaccessible to many.
Another fan slammed the prices for the Italian Open, stating:
"Wondered why more people on tt go to madrid than rome then i looked at the ticket prices one thing ab italians they are gonna scam you."
wondered why more people on tt go to madrid than rome then i looked at the ticket prices one thing ab italians they are gonna scam you
Another fan claimed that the prices at the Italian Open were more expensive than the tickets for the opening rounds of Grand Slams.
"It is even more expensive than the early rounds of GS tickets," the fan's tweet read.
@RelevantTennis It is even more expensive than the early rounds of GS tickets!!🤯
Here are some more fan reactions:
@RelevantTennis Ridiculous, while Pietrangeli is of course packed as the ground prices are more normal... as a big tennis fan, I want to see tennis and would love to see Sinner playing, but if that's the price for just a 2nd round then better to go to other tournaments outside Italy.
@RelevantTennis Starts with 90 euros？That's way too expensive！
@josemorgado It’s not about how long the tournament is but how expensive are the tickets
The side effects of the immense ticket prices in Rome are showing.
Given my experience in Cagliari last week (100€/day at a challenger) I'm not shocked, but this is a massive shame, since Italy is (usually) a great tennis nation. Hope they'll fix it for the next season... twitter.com/FilippoPompili…
even my 5 year cousin could come up with a better slot twitter.com/relevanttennis…
not even the ticket prices but to schedule italy’s number 1 at 11 am on a friday morning 😭 even my 5 year cousin could come up with a better slot twitter.com/relevanttennis…
Iga Swiatek thrashes Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round of the Italian Open
Iga Swiatek started her title defense in Rome in spectacular fashion, thrashing 2021 French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-0, 6-0 on May 12. The Pole will next play Lesia Tsurenko in the third round, and the winner of that match will face either 16th seed Liudmila Samsonova or Donna Vekic in the Round of 16.
Elsewhere in the tournament, Paula Badosa booked her place in the third round with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-4 win over last year's runner-up Ons Jabeur. The Spaniard will next take on 32nd seed Marta Kostyuk for a place in the fourth round of the WTA 1000 tournament.
The likes of Barbora Krejcikova, Jelena Ostapenko, and Daria Kasatkina have also reached the third round of the Italian Open.
In the men's singles tournament, Holger Rune and Grigor Dimitrov are among the players who have booked their place in the last 32.