Female tennis player Naomi Osaka believes that inviting more influencers to the US Open may be good for tennis, but she also emphasized that they need to respect this sport as well as its culture of behavior.
In this year's tournament, the US Open organizers have nearly doubled the program for content creators, with nearly 100 creators receiving professional cards.
However, this experiment has caused some controversy.
In the first round, when Osaka met Anastasia Zakharova, the match was interrupted when the content creators in the guest area used flashlights on mobile phones and moved continuously while the players were playing.
This not only disrupts athletes but also affects the remaining audiences.
Many matches at the last Grand Slam of the year were also interrupted when influencers were constantly reminded to maintain order during the match and turn off camera lights to avoid distracting the players.
Seed No. 13 Osaka then defeated Zakharova 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3) before overcoming Katerina Siniakova 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 to write her name into the 3rd round of the US Open.
After defeating Siniakova, the 4-time Grand Slam champion clearly affirmed that she has no problem with influencers helping tennis reach a new audience, but she feels that this whole thing needs to be managed better.
If you come to a sporting event, you must respect that sport. I feel that learning about this sport in advance is a minimum politeness. Especially the culture of behavior," Osaka explained.
It may be a good thing that people help tennis become more popular to their own audiences. But I think this needs to be managed much better, especially in situations like in my match.
In general, there are very big positive aspects. You always want everyone to continue to develop this sport. I just think that it must happen in a way that everyone knows the rules of the game and the culture of behavior".
Although the explosion of social networks has only taken place in recent years, the US Open has long attracted a very unique audience - from Hollywood stars, famous athletes to politicians spending large sums of money to appear at the most prestigious entertainment - sports event in New York.
