The US Open and the Future of Tennis

For the past two weeks, I was glued to the U.S. Open tennis tournament. There were compelling stories everywhere. A 19-year-old American kid raced to the women’s championship. A 36-year-old Serbian who grew up in a civil war fought off youthful challengers to become the greatest of all time. A 20-year-old Spaniard was in the process of remaking the sport with athleticism, shot-making, and joy - until he didn’t. A Tunisian star fought off a respiratory infection and high expectations to just play. The tennis was fantastic, electric. 

There were the usual commercial banalities. The corporate part of it is so gross. An avalanche of advertising between games whitewashed their reputations. American Express, Emirates Airlines from Dubai, and Modera, maker of the COVID vaccine, all paid millions and millions to exercise control over the tournament and push their brands to the public. Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan bragged about their support for kids of color playing tennis. It all ended with the multi-million dollar checks handed over by a JP Morgan executive to the champions - money that could have gone to - wait for it - kids of color to play more tennis! It’s capitalism in all its bloated indulgence. 

Then there is the politics. Two of the finalists were from Russia and Belarus, invaders and enablers of the invasion of Ukraine, of death and destruction. These players are caught between their love of tennis competition and the derangement of their countries’ political leaders.

The Ukrainian players on the tour don’t speak to the Russian players and don’t shake their hands after a match. The tension between sports and politics, always center stage at the Olympics, was never more dramatic and difficult at the US Open. 

But in all the hours I watched the tournament, not once did I see or hear a mention of the war, of how the Russian and Ukrainian players dealt with it, or how the administrators of the tournament handled it. 

The blackout of the war and its damage is a measure of the total corporate control of the event. You can just hear the ESPN executive meeting with the folks at JP Morgan, who reportedly paid $20 million to splash their name and messaging all over the action. “If we are gonna give you $20 million for a tennis tournament, we want no negative talk about war.’’

It’s shameful. But as I said - it’s capitalism. 

But let’s consider the good stuff. 

Consider this, two Black men battled long into the night and into the morning in the Men’s semifinal. It was lost on no one that Ben Shelton of Atlanta and Frances Tiafoe of Hyattsville, MD were the inheritors of a legacy built by Arthur Ashe.

Arthur Ashe was my first sports hero back in the 60s. He won this same tournament in 1968 when it was played on grass in Forest Hills, NY at the West Side Tennis Club. At the time, Ashe was a captain in the US Army and a child of segregation in Richmond, VA. He was the inheritor of Althea Gibson’s legacy, who won the same tournament in 1958. Gibson was the Jackie Robinson of tennis, braving segregation and racism at every level to become the greatest tennis player of her day. 

And Ashe, possessor of a lightning serve and the best backhand in the game went on to win Wimbledon in 1973. But the quality of Arthur Ashe I most admired was his kindness. He never argued a line call and was always gracious to his opponents and to kids all over the world. 

And now, decades after his death from AIDS via a bad blood transfusion, Ashe’s name sits atop the stadium where the big matches are played, including the Tiafoe-Shelton match.  

Tiafoe’s parents fled the civil war in Sierra Leone, making it to the US where his dad got a job as a custodian and his mom as a nurse. Frances and his brother lived at the local tennis center in their Dad’s janitorial office for 11 years while they learned to play. 

All this history, all this meaning, all this courage in the face of a society that just didn’t get it for so long, takes place within the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. It was Billie Jean King who in the 1970s refused to play tennis on the national stage until her fellow women players were paid the same as men. That happened 50 years ago. Consider that when you think about how the U.S. women’s national soccer team just achieved equal pay LAST YEAR.

Arthur Ashe is no longer with us. But Billie Jean, at 79, most certainly is. Winner of 39 Grand Slam titles, in both singles and doubles, King is there, her face emblazoned on all the marketing posters. 

She is the toast of the tournament, an advisor to young players, both male and female. She is a celebrity with the brand power to bend corporate sponsors to her will and drive the kind of equality she never saw in her time. 

Althea Gibson, Arthur Ashe, and Billie Jean King. When you watch these wonderful tennis players grow and prosper in the future, say a quick thanks to those names. They suffered long and hard so these young people could have better lives, win millions of dollars, and live in a more just society. 

Not to mention they play the best most electrifying tennis you have ever seen.