Influencers Are Invading the U.S. Open

The summer of influencer backlash continues at the U.S. Open.

On Monday night, Naomi Osaka’s match against Anastasia Zakharova at the Arthur Ashe Stadium was interrupted when the umpire repeatedly asked a rowdy suite of influencers to be quiet as they filmed what looked like a TikTok dance underneath a bright light. Footage of the incident went viral online, garnering over 1,500 comments, many from frustrated tennis fans complaining about the invasion of distracting influencers at the U.S. Open in recent years. Tension that’s been simmering for the past few years — ever since Honey Deuces and tennis WAGs became Instagram feed fixtures — boiled over in the comments section.

“All around the stadium, there were people — in the middle of serves and in the middle of points — getting up, walking through the crowd down to the closest they could get to the court in their section, and taking pictures, taking videos, using ring lights,” says Katherine, a lifelong tennis fan who posted the video. Typically, tennis crowds are expected to wait until the end of a set — or at least between points — to move around the stadium. Still, the U.S. Open relaxed its rules about walking around during matches in 2024.

Katherine said the umpire turned to look at a particularly rowdy suite of about a dozen people and asked them to be quiet several times. They were being filmed by a U.S. Open usher holding a very bright light the size of a cell phone. “It didn’t seem like they were aware that the umpire was talking to them because they weren’t really watching the match,” she says. “I’ve never seen that in the middle of a point. The flash was the craziest thing.”

Mriganka Chawla, one of the influencers taking a selfie while Osaka is playing in Katherine’s video, told The Cut she regrets trying to get a picture during the match. She attended the Open for the first time on Monday night with her fiancé’s tennis-obsessed family, not as part of her work as a fashion and lifestyle influencer. (She was not in the suite that caught the umpire’s attention.) While she was out of her seat getting an ice-cream sandwich, she found a section of the stands that wasn’t very crowded and asked an usher to take her picture “because my man can’t take a photo to save his life.” She didn’t think she was disturbing anyone.

“I was seriously so far away,” she says. “I’m really sorry if I disrupted any playing.” After she identified herself in the comments of Katherine’s video, denying that her flash was bothering anyone, she’s been getting a strange mix of “death threats” and questions about which selfie light she used (it’s the one Alix Earle has). “This is such an influencer thing, and I understand that now, but everybody has really cute photos [from the Open]. I just wanted one cute photo,” she says. “I wish somebody had told me, ‘You can’t do that.’ This is also on me. I should have researched it. I wish there were some guidelines or something.”

Maybe this was inevitable. In recent years, the United States Tennis Association has been working to turn the U.S. Open into what the organization’s CEO recently described as “tennis Disneyland” — piling on family-friendly events and Instagram-bait activations around the games. Inviting influencers is part of that strategy. This year, according to Sportico, the USTA gave 100 influencers and podcasters media credentials — up from 50 last year. And that’s not counting the creators who land invites from brands that sponsor suites.

The influx is grating on tennis fans, who’ve complained about rising ticket prices, increased crowds, and newcomers who seem to be unaware of tennis etiquette — or worse, are uninterested in the game. In a recent article diagnosing the U.S. Open’s “influencer problem,” the Mercer Edition, a culture magazine, wrote, “This sport is built around a level of concentration that can’t be understood until fully observed, and as such, brands should take that into consideration when offering to open the doors for vanity metrics and corporate satisfaction.”

Katherine said tennis fans have gotten “really fatigued with influencer culture” at the Open over the past two years. The tournament has always been known for its loud and rowdy crowds, but the rush of selfies is a bridge too far. “Once it’s impacting the play of the game, that’s a breaking point.”

And, after all of that, Chawla said her controversial picture didn’t even turn out cute. “It looks like I’m mid-sneeze,” she says, laughing. “Hey, everyone knows I went to the U.S. Open now, so I guess I don’t have to post anything.”

This post has been updated.

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