Longtime US Open devotees are now openly feuding with a new breed of stadium-goer: social-media content creators they accuse of hijacking tennis’s biggest stage for personal clout.
Steven Margolin, 38, a writer and veteran of the Flushing, Queens, tournament, has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the influencer influx. He contends that a large share of recent attendees barely register the on-court action.
“Half the people here don’t watch tennis. They don’t understand the etiquette of tennis,” Margolin griped.
“They’re talking through the points. They’re here on a business thing, they’re networking and talking through the points. They don’t care about tennis!”
Margolin said the deterioration has been gradual but unmistakable. He has personally witnessed spectators in nosebleed seats sneak down to better locations, and others so brazen they have stolen commemorative Honey Deuce cups from right beside their owners. The situation boiled over, he added, during the Carlos Alcaraz-Ben Shelton match, when one gawker planted himself in an aisle to film a full segment leading up to a point, completely obstructing the view for everyone seated behind him.
Various viral clips have amplified the grievances. One captured a loud group filming a TikTok during Naomi Osaka’s first-round match. Another showed an influencer in polka dots posing with a ring light while play was still underway.
Katherin Slocum, 70, of Dobbs Ferry in Westchester County, has watched the shift with dismay. She believes the event has devolved into a place to be seen rather than a venue for appreciating elite sport.
The influencer presence was especially overwhelming during Fan Week this year, Slocum noted, when Arthur Ashe Stadium was overrun by “attractive women in little tennis outfits with ring lights.”
“We were sitting in [Arthur] Ashe [Stadium], and the influencers — in the middle during interesting points — would stand up with ring lights. We had to finally say, ‘Can you wait for the changeover?’ They said, ‘What’s a changeover?'”
Slocum stops short of calling for an outright ban. “I don’t think they should ban them, but they should be educated about tennis etiquette,” she said.
Margolin traces the problem to a self-perpetuating cycle of attention-seeking. “It gets worse every year,” he said. “The more influencers there are, the more people that see the influencers, the more people want to do their own thing.”
Yet not every regular is ready to pin the blame on newcomers. One longtime courtsider, who requested anonymity, argues that entrenched attendees have themselves fueled the hostility through their own entitled conduct. This regular cited veterans using strangers’ bags as footrests, shooting dirty looks at certain food orders, and falsely accusing others of cutting lines.
“This is like a daily thing. The US Open is a [snob] convention with tennis on the side,” the regular said.
“The real story of the Open is not the influencers. They’re harmless. The real story is it’s [an elitist] convention. … It’s really entitled, bad behavior.”
The tournament continues through the coming weekend in Queens.