SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
It's time for sports.
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SIMON: Finals weekend in Flushing Meadows. And the NFL season kicks off with a projectile, and I don't mean the football. Sports writer Howard Bryant joins us. Howard, thanks so much for being with us.
HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott. How are you?
SIMON: I'm fine. Thanks, my friend. U.S. Open women's finals today, Amanda Anisimova looking to win the first Grand Slam title of her career. But she's got to face the No. 1-ranked player in the world - the U.S. Open defending championship, Aryna Sabalenka. Arthur Ashe Stadium will probably be rocking for the Jerseyite, don't you think?
BRYANT: Yeah, I think so, and it's going to be fun for her. I mean, you look at especially the last time we spoke about Anisimova, she was destroyed at Wimbledon by Iga Swiatek - love and love, 0 and 0 in an hour. So - and, you know, she completely had lost her composure. She was crying. It was horrible to watch. And so what does she do? She comes all the way back. She comes back here, and she gets to the final. And she beats Swiatek, and she gets her revenge, and she beats Naomi Osaka, who's a two-time U.S. Open champion and a four-time major champion. So it's a really wonderful story, and especially when you think about her entire journey, having...
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: ...Been a phenom. She lost her dad. She's lost her way in the game and then has made the climb all the way back, and it really is terrific.
And as for Sabalenka, well, let's see. We've got four majors this year, and she's going to have played an American in all four. She lost the Australian to Madison Keys in the final. She lost the French to Coco Gauff in the final. She lost to Anisimova in the semifinal at Wimbledon. So what does she get now? She gets another American...
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: ...Anisimova. One more time for all the marbles.
SIMON: Not surprising - men's final tomorrow - two best players in the world meet once more, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Can you...
BRYANT: Yeah.
SIMON: ...Consider either of them to be the favorite?
BRYANT: Well, you've got Sinner, who's the defending champion. But you've got Alcaraz, who, as we say, is in God mode right now. He's the first player since Roger Federer, back in 2015, to have gotten this far and having not lost a set. And so he's just been terrific. He goes up against Djokovic yesterday, and it's the way it's supposed to be when you're 38 years old. The 22-year-old is supposed to beat you. But he's Novak Djokovic. And he'd...
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: ...Won 24 championships, and he's the indomitable one, and everyone's afraid of him. And - but Alcaraz is not, and neither is Sinner. They're the two best players in the world. We've gone from the big three of Nadal, Djokovic and Federer to the new two. And this is the - going to be the eighth straight championship that's been won by one of them or the other.
SIMON: Howard, you know this tournament. Have the ticket prices changed the nature of who's in the stands?
BRYANT: It's gone insane, Scott. And I'll tell you, you know, less than 10 years ago, a grounds pass was the best deal in sports - $60, you could go in. You couldn't go into Ashe, where the ticketed games - you know, matches were. But you get to see really, really great players. And for $60, it was the best deal in all of sports, in my opinion. And now a grounds pass is about $240. People were complaining about all the Instagram influencers and all the famous people who are now there. It's totally changed the environment. And for the - real tennis fans have real issues with it. The Djokovic-Alcaraz match yesterday, people were saying - I think the U.S. Open announced it was the most expensive ticket in the history of the tournament. New people come to the - when you get different people at the tournament, you get a different environment. It feels very different. The real fans have complained.
SIMON: And quickly, NFL season begins. The Eagles may have set an appalling record for having a player ejected six seconds into the season.
BRYANT: (Laughter).
SIMON: He spit on the opposing quarterback.
BRYANT: Yeah, that's not really the way the $30 billion machine wants to let itself - introduce itself to the new season. But it is Philly, and it is Dallas, and that's what you get with those two teams. And then, of course, out in Brazil, you - last night, you got the Chiefs losing their first game. I think it's going to be a tough season for them. Not counting them out...
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: ...Obviously, but it's really, really hard to go to four Super Bowls in a row.
SIMON: Howard Bryant, thanks so much. Talk to you soon.
BRYANT: My pleasure, Scott. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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