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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. In our last few minutes, we'll wrap up today's show with calls from you tennis fans out there on the increased popularity of your sport as the US Open heads into the home stretch at the tennis center in Flushing. Have you become a tennis fan in the last few years? Call us if so, and tell us what got you into the sport. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or long-time fans, you can call in, too, and say if you've been enjoying this year's US Open, and if you think the sport is getting more popular for any particular reason.

212-433-9692, reporting from the New York Times found combined day and night attendance on Monday through Friday last week averaged just over 75,000 fans per day, making last week the top five most attended days in the tournament's history. At that rate, the US Open might see over a million people total at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center through the course of the whole competition. The Mets get two and a half million people over the course of six months, the Yankees about 3 million. They're getting a million people in two weeks for this. If that doesn't tell you that more people are clamoring to see tennis live, consider this.

While the Times reported on the big crowds, CNN had a story yesterday about a cocktail being sold at the US Open that will surpass $10 million in sales before the tournament ends on Sunday. The Honeydews, a mix of vodka, lemonade and a raspberry liqueur, plus its signature melon balls, as it's described, is selling for a whopping $23. You do get a commemorative cup with it, but $23 for a drink.

Yet despite the price tag, 2.2 million of them had already sold before yesterday's matches began, according to CNN. Listeners, have you gotten into tennis more recently? Are you part of this surge in popularity? If so, tell us what got you into it. 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692. Joining me now to talk about this is Matthew Futterman, senior writer for The Athletic, the sports unit of the New York Times. Hey, Matthew, welcome back to WNYC.

Matthew Futterman: Oh, thanks for having me, Brian. Sorry to bring your standards down. You have an economic historian before me, and [unintelligible 00:02:44] coming down to sports.

Brian Lehrer: All our news guests today wanted to make sports analogies, though.

Matthew Futterman: There you go.

Brian Lehrer: Maybe you're the crown jewel of this entire show.

Matthew Futterman: Maybe.

Brian Lehrer: How much is it surging, and why is it surging?

Matthew Futterman: Zendaya, that would be my one word answer. There was this movie called Challengers that came out earlier this year with the star Zendaya, who's about as big a star as there is in the world outside of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. That was a pretty popular movie. I think she created a tremendous amount of buzz for a sport that was already on the rise, thanks to a Netflix show, which wasn't as popular as other documentaries, but probably did some good work.

You just have some of the most famous people in the world, whether it's Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal or Coco Gauff, playing a beautiful sport and with a lot of glamour surrounded by it in it. Those are all things that New Yorkers like.

Brian Lehrer: You named some tennis players. You named one entertainment figure. I'm going to take a call from Ernest in Brooklyn who's going to back up the person who, my theory was, is most responsible for the surge of popularity in tennis in the last decade or two. Ernest, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Ernest: Hello. My answer is the William sisters.

Brian Lehrer: Did they get you into tennis? Were you not into tennis until you got into the Williams sisters?

Ernest: I was never into tennis. Of course, I know about Arthur Ashe. I know about Althea Gibson and stuff like that. The Williams sisters, similar to when we saw what happened in Gauff, I'm a person of color, and I must say that since then, the succession of people of color in the sport is just absolutely wonderful. Last night, watching Tiafoe reach where he has, I'm just looking forward to the next few days.

Brian Lehrer: Ernest, thank you very much. What about the William sisters as a factor? I don't know if you can quantify it. I would say Serena, even maybe in her own category.

Matthew Futterman: Yes, absolutely. Actually, that was my big kickoff story ahead of the US Open. I'm 54, or excuse me, I just had a birthday. I'm 55. I would say one of the biggest sports transformations in my lifetime is that the top of American tennis has really gone from white to Black. It's been an amazing thing, especially because what you see in tennis that you don't see in golf, which the listener mentioned, is the Williams sisters in Tiger Woods came out at about the same time.

Tiger Woods was basically a one off. The Williams sisters, somewhat because the groundwork that had been laid before her by Arthur Ashe, Althea Gibson and Lori McNeil, and some other solid players. The first two are incredible players. Then there were some solid players after them. Because of that groundwork, you had the infrastructure there for them to spawn this whole new generation of players, Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens and Coco Gauff and Tiafoe.

Brian Lehrer: I personally have attended the US Open once a year in many years. I was there on Sunday for the daytime matches. You mentioned Taylor Swift. I really enjoyed watching the rising American men's star, Taylor Fritz.

Matthew Futterman: Yes, I mentioned Taylor Swift earlier in [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: In another context, yes. He was an underdog. Taylor Fritz, not Taylor Swift. On Friday, there will be an all-American semi final between Fritz and the more well known fan favorite, who the previous caller mentioned, Frances Tiafoe. Big fun for the US at the US Open, even though Coco Gauff got eliminated early on on the women's side, right?

Matthew Futterman: Yes. First all-male American men's semifinals since 2005. It guarantees that we're looking at the first American in a grand slam in any of the four grand slams since 2009. Just one more point. You mentioned you went there. I go to all the grand slams, and I think one of the most remarkable things about the US Open is the crowd really does bear some resemblance to the city where the tournament exists.

I don't think that's something you can certainly say about the French Open in Wimbledon. Australia is a little different. London is an incredibly diverse city, but you walk into the gates of the All England Club, and it's just about the whitest place on earth.

Brian Lehrer: Viveka in Elmhurst, you're on WNYC. Hi, Viveka. If I'm saying your name right.

Viveka: It's Viveka, but Viveka is fine. I'm calling because I actually live in Elmhurst, and I took lessons at the US Open at the Billy Jean King Center all year. I tried to see if I can get tickets ahead of time. They said, "No, everything has to be at the box office or online." I tried to get tickets at Ticketmaster, and the prices are outrageous. They're all resale. None of them are actual box office ticket prices. Then last Friday, I actually went to the box office to try and get tickets. Nothing available. Only single tickets, and they were $1,200.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, yes, which are basically resale prices. I'll give you one tip. I don't know if this will help you enough, but one thing that I do, if you go online when tickets first go on sale months before the tournament, you can get them at the actual box office prices on the website. I didn't buy tickets for Arthur Ashe Stadium this year. You can get cheaper tickets by just buying for Lewis Armstrong Stadium or the grandstand. You can still see great matches, like that Taylor Fritz match that I saw in Armstrong the other day. Any other tips on tickets? Vivaka brings up a real issue.

Matthew Futterman: Yes, it is a huge issue. One thing I would also give a tip for is because even the tickets you bought, Brian, are probably going to be out of reach for a lot of people.

Brian Lehrer: That's right.

Matthew Futterman: The week before the US Open, the qualifying week, you will see some great tennis, and it's free. It's called fan week. They were getting about 40,000 or 50,000 people a day in there for fan week. You just walk through the gates. You have to pay for food there, but you could bring your own food if you want. You will see players who haven't qualified.

That means everybody who's outside of the top 100. If you think the 100 best tennis players in the world, the 101st player is pretty good player, and you can sit right up close, right next to them, and then you can watch the pros practice, too, because they will be there. Some of them are playing exhibitions as well.

Brian Lehrer: Funny enough, I was on the train going by there. I wasn't going to the tournament, bypassing that stop during that week, and was really impressed by the numbers of people on the train going to the US Open that week. Yet, they should do something for the heart of tournament play to help make the audience look more like the city, I would say. A couple of text messages that came in. Listener writes, "I started dating someone a year and a half ago who'd just gotten into tennis, and I started playing with her. We in many ways fell in love on the tennis courts of Queens.

We're just about to move in together and attended the US Open last week. Our favorite player still in the tournament is rising American star Emma Navarro." That's very sweet. Someone else, "Unfortunately, week one of the US Open is being oversold to where it's losing its appeal. That was the angle of the Times article. No longer can fans enjoy the side courts play without attempting to manage through the crowds." Anything from you on that overselling? We have 20 seconds left in the segment.

Matthew Futterman: Yes, they do sell a tremendous amount of grounds passes, and they keep adding seats. I think they're going to make some effort there. People are going to vote with their feet. Are they going to keep buying the ground passes and keep coming, or are they going to decide whether it's too much? If they keep buying tickets and voting with their feet, that might tell you something about [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Matthew Futterman, senior writer for The Athletic, the sports unit of the New York Times. Thanks again, Matthew.

Matthew Futterman: Thanks for having me.

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