People paid $5,000 to see two Italians in the U.S. Open final

NEW YORK – Someone paid $5,000 for a courtside seat to see Serena Williams win the calendar Grand Slam. Unfortunately for that person, Williams won't be on the court for Saturday's final. She probably won't even be in the stadium, maybe not even in the city anymore.

Williams lost in a shocking semifinal on Friday afternoon. Prior to the match, tickets were selling for an average of $1,431, according to Jake Sharpless of the ticket vendor Rukkus. The men's final was averaging $1,346.

"According to our data, this is the first time we've seen a women's final in any Grand Slam be priced higher than the men's and it goes to show how excited people are about the chance to see the first Grand Slam in over 25 years," Sharpless wrote in an email Friday morning. They were paying nearly double what fans had paid to see American Pharoah race for the Triple Crown earlier this summer.

By the time Williams lost, tickets had dropped by 126 percent, to an average of $633. By 5:30p.m., fans could snag a ticket for $52. That's not even nearly face value.

Here's how it compared to the year's other premier sporting events:

• US Open Women's Final: $1,431

• World Series: $884

• Stanley Cup Final: $1,343

• NBA Final: $1,562

• Super Bowl: $3,887

Sharpless added that 76 tickets had sold yesterday and over 450 in the past week.

"In the past week, we saw over 50 sets of tickets go for over $2,000 each culminating with a set of court side seats trade for almost $5,000 a ticket yesterday," he added. That's a lot of cash. Do you think they'll even show up to see Italians Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci duke it out?

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Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. You can find her on Twitter and Facebook.