The USTA credentialed close to 100 content creators for the 2026 US Open, nearly double the 54 it credentialed in 2025. On Monday, August 31, during Naomi Osaka's first-round win over Anastasia Zakharova at Arthur Ashe Stadium, a group in a courtside suite staged a loud photo shoot with bright ring lights mid-point. Chair umpire Kader Nouni stopped play and told them over the microphone to sit down. Osaka lost the point after the disruption threw off her ball toss. U.S. Open spokesperson Brendan McIntyre later confirmed the group wasn't even on official credentials. Three days later, on September 3, the USTA pulled the credentials of two creators who'd been legitimately accredited, Meg Radice and Audrey Jongens, after they posted photos of their passes online.

1. The USTA (Brendan McIntyre) Says This Is Working, Not Breaking

The disruption came from outsiders, not the program — and enforcement moved fast once a real violation happened.

The USTA never credentialed the Monday group. McIntyre said the people who disrupted Osaka's match weren't part of the official content-creator program at all. That's the USTA's central defense: the incident isn't evidence the program is out of control, it's evidence of a problem with uncredentialed guests, separate from the creators the USTA actually invited.

McIntyre calls it rare. "These instances happen infrequently, and similar to when crowd noise reaches a certain level, our chair umpires have the ability to address the crowd when they occur." The USTA has added signage on the grounds and is messaging attendees by email, suite notification, and video board not to use flash photography or lighting during play.

The USTA yanked Radice and Jongens's passes within two hours. When two credentialed creators broke a real rule by posting their passes online, the USTA revoked their access before they'd even reached the courts. To McIntyre's camp, that's proof the enforcement side of the program is real, not just talk — it moved fast against both the uncredentialed guests at the Osaka match and the credentialed creators who broke the rules days later.

2. Jessica Pegula Calls It Disrespectful to the Players' Job

Tennis is players' livelihood, not a content backdrop, and treating it like one insults the people competing.

Pegula says it's disrespectful. "People are down there trying to perform, and it's their career and their job. It seems a bit disrespectful" when influencers use selfie lights and take photos during points, she said.

Osaka wants people to learn the sport's etiquette, not skip it. "If you come to a sporting event, you have to respect the sport. I feel it's common courtesy to read up on the sport, especially the etiquette," Osaka said. She noted the umpire "told everyone to be quiet more than I've ever heard an umpire tell a crowd to be quiet."

3. Frances Tiafoe Says New Audiences Are Worth It

Growing the sport's reach matters more than a handful of bad actors, and most creators aren't the problem.

Tiafoe's on board with the strategy. "If creators and people from outside the traditional tennis world are coming to matches, posting about it and getting a completely different audience interested in the sport, I think that's dope," he said.

Medvedev backs the growth logic too. "In general, the more the sport grows, the better it is," the 2021 U.S. Open champion said, adding that umpires tend to handle disruptions once they happen.

Even creators are drawing a line for their own community. Sports broadcaster and influencer Emily Austin put it bluntly: "The US Open is not your personal content studio. Take the pictures. Make the TikToks. Have fun. But if your content is distracting the actual players, you've forgotten why you were invited in the first place." Her point: the problem is bad behavior, not creators as a category.

4. Traditional Fans Say Influencers Are Ruining the Sport

Tennis crowds go quiet during play out of respect, and stunts like this show contempt for both the athletes and that culture.

ABC News captured one fan reaction that sums up the mood: "The umpire had to tell a bunch of influencers to be quiet as they posed for pictures mid point in the Naomi Osaka match. I hate what Tennis is becoming."

Online commentary has been blunt. Outlets tracking the reaction said commenters widely called it "cringe" and "disgusting" and said the influencers "ruined" the event.

Where This Lands

The USTA is standing by the expansion and says its enforcement works — it moved fast against both the uncredentialed guests at the Osaka match and the credentialed creators who broke the rules days later. Pegula and traditional fans say the damage is already visible on the court, in a lost point during a Grand Slam match. Tiafoe, Medvedev, and creators like Austin say the reach is worth the growing pains, as long as the community calls out bad actors. Nobody in this fight wants tennis to shrink its audience. They just disagree on how much disruption a bigger audience is worth.

Sources