There have been a lot of storylines at this year’s U.S. Open. Like the rise of Americans, the return of Carlos Alcaraz, 3 a.m. matches. But oddly enough, it’s the action off the court that’s taken center stage this year.
If you haven’t heard, the U.S. Open has become something of a fans gone wild, at least by the tame standards of tennis spectatorship, which, unlike football and basketball and baseball and hockey and such, still has some expectation of decorum. That hasn’t entirely been the case thus far.
Perhaps the most notable example came during a match played in Arthur Ashe Stadium, when Naomi Osaka had to talk to the umpire about someone producing content using a ring light. So where there used to be a code of silence when the ball was in play, someone decided instead to film themselves talking during a point.
A lot of folks have tied this and similar behaviors to the rise of influencers at the event, folks who are there less to enjoy some tennis and more to build an audience on the back of their experience. Some of these are actually credentialed media - the Open has given a growing number of media passes to folks working outside the traditional media space.
But the vast majority have just bought tickets to spend a significant amount of time on the grounds posting the perfect photo or video - usually framing a $23 Honey Deuce cocktail in the foreground.
To better understand, just watch the crowd during a critical point of any match, and you’ll notice a significant percent holding up a phone to film the moment, clearly so they can post immediately thereafter.
But honestly, that’s not the worst of it. Self-absorbed influencers are one thing. Obnoxious loudmouths are something else.
Throughout the tournament, players have dealt with heckling, profanity, abusive rants, and so on. In one of the more public moments, Jakub Mensik asked the ref to remove a clearly intoxicated fan yelling throughout his match against Lerner Tien in Armstrong Stadium. To their credit, most of the fans left in the building at that late hour started a chant of “kick him out,” which they did.
I was at the Open that day - and yes, that’s a humble brag - and at an earlier match on the more intimate Court 17, two drunken fans sitting in the front row right in front of me were way over the line in comments toward Zizou Bergs, who lost in a brutal five setter. This display has repeated itself across the grounds all tournament, in addition to increased normalization of fans talking loudly during a serve, standing up and walking during points, and all the other things that not only are you not supposed to do, but also can really impact the game itself. Not to mention the experience of other folks sitting around you.
It’s easy to slide into a ‘get off my lawn’ diatribe here, and there’s probably a whole lot of folks who might simply dismiss my grievance as being out of touch. Some might suggest that tennis should be like other pro sports, where you can yell the most unconscionable things at players without consequence. I won’t debate the merits of any of those points, both because it’s too great a divide and because it’s not really the most relevant point here.
I actually don’t think we’ve got a tennis problem, or even a sports problem. That just happens to be where this issue is manifest. It’s sadly bigger than that. It’s easy to say this is happening at the U.S. Open because the tickets are so expensive, or because these aren’t real tennis fans anymore. That may be true. But these antics aren’t specific to the court. If you close your eyes, you could imagine yourself at a political rally, or the airport, or any of these places where common courtesy and behavioral norms have fallen by the wayside. Just like what happened at the Ryder Cup golf event last year.
Should we try and fix bad behavior at the Open? Absolutely. Although that means less alcohol sales, cutting the secondary ticket market, and fewer late-night matches. But by all means, let’s try. I just think the real fix goes way beyond the court.
Keith Strudler is the Dean of the College of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.