Photo: Brian Friedman/USTA via Getty Images
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. A woman claiming to be one of the offending photo-takers in the video also chimed in, defending the light and insisting the “empire [sic] said nothing.”
“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.
Tennis etiquette is that you don’t even GET UP IN THE MIDDLE OF A POINT but now at @US Open apparently it’s ring lights and photo shoots everywhere in the MIDDLE OF A POINT. Listen, I love bringing new people to the open and I’m all for getting more people into tennis because it’s such a fun sport to watch but if you’re going to disrespect the players, you shouldn’t come to the match. And I LOVE content creators bringing tennis to everyone on social media but if you’re not going to be respectful of the game being played thats NOT OKAY. Yyou can see ring lights from all over the stadium and the umpire and players made it very clear that it’s a HUGE DISTRACTION and it’s now impacting the players ability to play the game we are all here to see. And apparently the us open and USTA are just fine with it because their staff is helping it happen. @influencersinthewild @Tennis Channel #nyccontentcreator #naomiosaka #usopen #tennistiktok #usopentennis
♬ original sound – There I Ruined It
She 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.”
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.
Arthur Ashe is so unbelievably loud it’s insane. I started chatting w my section usher and he said that the amount of people emailing the @usopen to tell them to tell people to stfu is unprecedented and he’s never heard it this loud before in his 25 years of working there.
— Zara Rahim (@ZaraRahim) September 2, 2026
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.”
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