Hey, we heard the amazing news: You’re headed out to the US Open! Maybe you paid for the tickets (and, yeah, we know: they seem to be getting rather pricey), or maybe you’ve been among the select few invited by a brand to watch the action from their well-appointed suite. Either way, awaiting you is an array of sensorial delights, from chicken nuggets topped with Petrossian caviar and crème fraiche to the infamous Honey Deuce cocktail; the glamorous, see-and-be-seen atmosphere of Arthur Ashe Stadium (soundtracked by DJ Trizz), where Travis Scott, Kaia Gerber, Homer Gere, Orlando Bloom, and Queen Latifah (to name but a few) have already visited in the early days of this year’s tournament; and, oh yeah, some great tennis.
If that last part seems like a bit of an afterthought, we’ve got some helpful advice for you.
Maybe you’ve been among the 1.5 million people clearing their throats and raising a finger in outrage after viewing the now-notorious viral videos of influencers supposedly ruining tennis for everybody the other night, or maybe you’re an influencer—or have hopes and dreams of being one—yourself. Let’s first catch you up and dispense with a few too-easy truisms: Yes, the crowds at the Open are bigger than ever; and yes, there do seem to be more influencers in attendance than ever before, with the press office of the United States Tennis Association (the sport’s governing body in the US, which owns and oversees the Open) issuing about 100 credentials this year for content creators, as the influencer genus is formally known.
And, yeah, there have been issues. After a boisterous group armed with ring lights on stands seemed to be capturing content on the balcony of their suite during Naomi Osaka’s late-night opening match against Anastasia Zakharova—not between games or even between points, but while the players were competing—the baritone-voiced chair umpire, Kader Nouni (who is, incidentally, known among insiders as the Barry White of tennis) was forced to reprimand the group.
“Guys, please, in the suite behind me,” Nouni pleaded, his voice utterly bereft of sensuality or seduction, “please, thank you guys, please take your seat.”
Osaka, who was asked about the situation after her second-round win on Thursday, was her usual thoughtful self in response. “Obviously, if you come to a sporting event, you have to respect the sport,” she said, “and I feel like it’s common courtesy to read up on the sport, especially the etiquette. It could be a good thing for people to make the sport of tennis popular to their specific audience,” she continued, “but it has to be managed a lot better, especially in a situation like my first-round match.”
I mean, it couldn’t be more clear: Influencers bad…. Right? Sadly, it’s not quite so simple, and we’ll get to why in a moment.
But here’s another of the other complaints about this year’s Open: The din in Arthur Ashe Stadium is out of control. Watch a match at Wimbledon’s Centre Court, and you can hear a pin drop. Part of that magic is about acoustics, of course; comparing the grass carpet of an open-air Centre Court to the massive echo chamber of a closed-roof Ashe Stadium (which also holds about 10,000 more fans) on a rainy day or night is a fool’s errand. It’s also worth noting that many people (including me) complained about the noise from the moment Ashe opened in 1997—but, yeah, it’s a thing, and yeah, it seems to be getting worse.
