The smashed racket from Serena Williams' 2018 US Open defeat by Naomi Osaka has been sold for $20,910 at a New Jersey auction.
Serena Williams's smashed racket from the 2018 US Open was one of the sporting memorabilia sold at the Goldin Auctions event in New Jersey.
Williams smashed her tennis racket after she lost temper from her 2018 US Open finals loss to Naomi Osaka. The 23-time grand slam champion had a clash with umpire Carlos Ramos and was docked a game for verbal abuse.
Williams and Ramos got into a verbal altercation after the umpire issued a code violation warning for coaching in the second game of the second set and said that her French coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, gave her hand signals from the stands.
Osaka defeated Williams 6-2, 6-4 in New York to deny her idol a 24th record and to win her first title and become the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam singles title.
According to the New York Times, she initially gave the racket to ball boy Justin Arrington-Holmes, who sold it to a dealer in Manhattan for $500 earlier this year. Holmes said: "Looking back I wish I'd had someone help me with the process. I was not familiar with how any of this works. I just wanted to get rid of it."
Also sold at the auction were a Jesse Owens gold medal from the 1936 Olympics, which was sold for $615,000 and a signed LeBron James rookie card from the 2003-4 season which was sold for $198,030.
Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin Auctions, said: "This was truly a remarkable event in both the wide assortment of items and the record prices realized for so many of them." The event had 1,500 lots that generated $4.3 million in sales, with five pieces of memorabilia closing for more than $100,000.
Other items that were sold at Goldin Auctions include a canceled check signed by Michael Jordan, which fetched $12,300, and a used Jerry Rice 49ers jerseys from 1995, which was sold for $27,060.
