At high-end sports experiences, influencers are now as ubiquitous as celebrities. They’re mingling in the same luxury boxes, sitting in the same courtside seats, and even performing in the same Super Bowl halftime shows.
The trend is especially visible in professional tennis, where several ranked players have current or former romantic partners with massive online followings who share content about the sport. As a result, major tennis tournaments have become important stops on the influencer social calendar—a role that many events have embraced. Last year, for example, the U.S. Open issued formal media credentials to dozens of content creators for the first time.
Still, the development is a frequent topic of online discourse, with a common refrain that influencers’ growing presence at sports detracts from the ability of “regular fans” to attend and enjoy certain events.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Front Office Sports, former top American pro tennis player John Isner says the change is not necessarily bad..
“It’s done a lot for the sport. It’s brought a lot of novice eyeballs to our sport,” Isner said of influencers attending and documenting Grand Slam tournaments. “Maybe they’re not there to enjoy or catch up on the tennis, but a lot of these people have huge followings.”
Isner credited influencers, in part, with turning the U.S. Open into a “spectacle,” noting the tournament now regularly “shatters” records and is “so much more trendy than when [he] was on tour 10 or 15 years ago.” (Following its first 1-million-fan event in 2024, the 2025 U.S. open drew 1.14 million attendees last year, a 9% increase.)
“Everyone wants to be there,” Isner, who made more than $20 million during his playing career, told FOS. “It is the sporting event to be at in New York City for two weeks straight. … Just when you think the U.S. Open can’t get any bigger, it does.”
Isner himself could be considered a tennis content creator; he cohosts the popular tennis podcast Nothing Major, which recently got picked up by The Volume, Colin Cowherd’s digital media network.
He would, however, like to see influencers a little less at Wimbledon: “It’s just got so much history and tradition. I don’t really feel like you need all that influencing there.”
The U.S. Open is less than a month away. Expect the see-and-be-seen crowd there.
