Arthur Ashe Stadium has seen just about everything. Title fights, meltdowns, epics under the lights. This week, it stopped for something far more modern.
“Guys, please, in the suite behind me ... please take your seat,” the chair umpire said, halting Naomi Osaka’s first-round match against Anastasia Zakharova at the US Open.
Tennis meets TikTok
As Osaka ground through her opening match of the 2026 US Open, a group of spectators in one of Arthur Ashe’s suites turned the night into a backdrop for their own show. A video that quickly spread online showed fans recording what looked like a TikTok during the second set. Another clip caught a spectator using a selfie light to capture photos while points were being played.
It wasn’t a one-off sideshow. It felt like a flashpoint.
The US Open has leaned into its status as an event as much as a tournament: a place for celebrities, socialites, and now influencers, to be seen. The Honey Deuce cups pile up. The $100 caviar snacks trend online. The crowds get louder and younger every year. Tennis, long obsessed with decorum, is colliding with an era where everything is content.
Osaka understands the trade-off as well as anyone.
Osaka: Growth is good, but “you have to respect the sport”
Speaking after her 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 win over Katerina Siniakova on Thursday, Sept. 3, Osaka didn’t rail against the new wave of fans. She acknowledged their power.
The exposure influencers bring, she said, “could be a good thing ... to make the sport of tennis popular.” The sport wants new eyes, new demographics, new energy. The US Open, more than any other Slam, has made that its brand.
But Osaka drew a clear line.
“If you come to a sporting event, you have to respect the sport. I feel like it’s common courtesy to read up on the sport,” she said. “You want people to continue to grow the sport. I just think it has to be in a way that everyone knows the rules and the etiquette.”
In other words: come for the vibe, stay for the tennis — but don’t ignore it.
Pegula: Appreciation turning into frustration
Jessica Pegula, one of the faces of American tennis and a regular in the second week in New York, struck a similar balance.
On one side, she gets it. The US Open sells an experience as much as a match ticket, and social media only amplifies that.
She said she can “appreciate the influencers coming and showcasing the US Open experience,” from those $100 caviar nuggets to the wildly popular Honey Deuce cocktail that has become almost as iconic as the blue courts themselves. Those posts help pack Flushing Meadows year after year.
Then comes the other side.
“It’s getting to a point where it’s a bit disrespectful,” Pegula admitted.
“I do think that it’s tough when you see videos like that when they’re taking pictures and using the selfie lights,” she said. “People are down there trying to perform. It’s their career and their job ... So I think it’s gotten a little maybe too much it feels like this year. I don’t know. I think again, I can appreciate one side of it, but I think when you have the other side literally interrupting matches, it gets a little tough.”
That word – “career” – cuts through the noise. For players, this isn’t a backdrop. It’s their livelihood.
Medvedev: Embrace the crowd, control the chaos
Daniil Medvedev, never shy about his relationship with New York crowds, looked at the bigger picture.
For him, the influx of new fans is largely positive. “A lot of more upside than downside,” he called it.
“The more the sport grows, the better it is,” Medvedev said. He backed the USTA to handle the edges of this new reality. “I trust USTA with what they’re doing. For sure, if it disturbs during the play, like if you see a light or something, well, you always say it to the referee ... maybe one time they do it, then someone tells them not to do it.”
That’s the current system: players complain, umpires warn, security nudges. A soft response to a loud problem.
A Grand Slam searching for its line
The US Open has always been the loosest of the four majors. Night sessions feel like concerts. Music thumps during changeovers. Fans wander in and out. It’s part of the charm, part of the chaos.
But this year, with viral clips of ring lights and choreographed videos in mid-match, the question is no longer whether tennis can tolerate a bit of buzz. It’s how much of the sport itself it’s willing to let slip into the background while the cameras roll.
