{"id":65644,"date":"2026-09-04T18:25:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/65644\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T18:25:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:25:36","slug":"us-open-party-attended-by-top-players-under-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/65644\/","title":{"rendered":"US Open party attended by top players under investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A pre-U.S. Open party seemingly has tennis integrity officials calling fault.<\/p>\n<p>Several of the sport\u2019s biggest stars <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/08\/28\/entertainment\/inside-the-us-open-2026-star-studded-parties-serena-williams-paige-paul-coco-gauff-and-more\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">attended a bash<\/a> fronted by Miami restauranteur and club owner Dave Grutman at the Crane Club in NYC, one sponsored by DraftKings \u2014 which caused it to be flagged to the International Tennis Integrity Agency, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benrothenberg.com\/p\/us-open-betting-gambling-draft-kings-party-david-grutman-serena-williams-aryna-sabalenka-coco-gauff-us-open-preview-venus-serena\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to tennis insider Ben Rothenberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are aware of this event, and we are looking into the circumstances and details,\u201d an International Tennis Integrity Agency spokesperson told Rothenberg.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.71386719;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40663358\" width=\"421\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/serena-williams-coco-gauff-attends-138779044.jpg\" alt=\"Serena Williams and Coco Gauff smiling for a picture at the US Open players dinner.\" class=\"wp-image-40663358\"\/>Serena Williams and Coco Gauff attend David Grutman &amp; Draft Kings hosted a US Open players dinner at Crane Club on Aug. 27 2026. BrokenRackets<\/p>\n<p>Grutman posted an Instagram carousel from the event, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/09\/02\/sports\/aryna-sabalenka-blows-up-at-reporter-in-fiery-us-open-scene\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">with Arnya Sabalenka<\/a>, Serena Williams, Eva Lys, Mira Andreeva and Coco Gauff posing with the host in front of a DraftKings-branded backdrop.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHosting @draftkings Welcome Players Party is my Favorite!!!\u201d he captioned the post.<\/p>\n<p>Grutman\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/groothospitality.com\/about-david-grutman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Groot Hospitality portfolio<\/a> includes Miami hotspots Gekko, Casadonna, Komodo and the LIV nightclub, with tennis lifestyle brand Prince.<\/p>\n<p>According to his personal website, he counts DraftKings among his partners.<\/p>\n<p>Per Rothenberg, players were not paid to appear at the event, but could still be in violation of anti-corruption rules by attending the shindig due to it\u2019s DraftKings association.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, facilitate, encourage and\/or promote Tennis Betting,\u201d Tennis Anti-Corruption rule D.1.b reads, while rule D.1.q adds that \u201cNo Covered Person, whether personally or via another arrangement or legal entity, may endorse, be employed, sponsored and\/or otherwise engaged by a Tennis Betting Operator.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Punishment could come in the form of a private warning, though Rothenberg notes former players James Blake, Mardy Fish and Bob Bryan were all hit with five-figure fines for paid promotions for gambling companies.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.75;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40663375\" width=\"443\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/david-grutman-matteo-berrettini-taylor-138779040.jpg\" alt=\"David Grutman, Matteo Berrettini, and Taylor Fritz attending a US Open players dinner.\" class=\"wp-image-40663375\"\/>David Grutman, Matteo Berrettini, Taylor Fritz attend attends David Grutman &amp; Draft Kings hosted a US Open players dinner at Crane Club in NY on August 27 2026. BrokenRackets<\/p>\n<p>Grutman \u2014\u00a0a self-described \u201cobsessed\u201d tennis fan \u2014\u00a0has close ties with some of the biggest names in the sport, often hooking them up with perks when in Miami and beyond, per Rothenberg.<\/p>\n<p>Other attendees included Taylor Fritz, Matteo Berrettini, Alexandra Eala, Anna Kalinskya and ESPN commentator Caroline Wozniacki.<\/p>\n<p>Kalinskya told Rothenberg she \u201cwent to catch up with my friends,\u201d but did not know the party was sponsored by DraftKings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pre-U.S. Open party seemingly has tennis integrity officials calling fault. Several of the sport\u2019s biggest stars attended&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[217,185,25460,122,50,503,1652,221,28,505,616],"class_list":["post-65644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-coco-gauff","tag-draftkings","tag-serena-williams","tag-sports","tag-sports-betting","tag-sports-entertainment","tag-taylor-fritz","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-betting","tag-us-open-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}