Naomi Osaka used her recent second‑round victory over Katerina Siniakova at the US Open as a platform to ask the growing legion of social‑media personalities who attend the tournament to respect the traditional etiquette of the sport. Osaka, who had already drawn attention after her opening‑round win against Anastasia Zakharova, said that the influx of influencers filming and shouting during matches was becoming a distraction for players and fans alike. "If you show up at a sporting event, you have to respect the sport," Osaka told reporters after she survived a wobble in the middle of her three‑set win, 6‑2 5‑7 6‑1, to advance to the third round in New York. "It’s common courtesy to at least learn the basics of the game, especially the etiquette." She added that influencers could still help grow tennis’s popularity, but they needed to manage their presence much more carefully, particularly in situations like her own first‑round match where the crowd was unusually noisy.
"There are huge positives in getting new eyes on tennis, but it has to happen in a way that everyone knows the rules and the proper conduct," Osaka said. During her first match, Osaka recalled an umpire’s unusually stern request for silence: "The umpire told everyone to be quiet – I’ve never heard an umpire speak that firmly to a crowd before.
I was trying to focus on the court, but there were people shouting and you could hear it clearly. It bothered my opponent too." The match against Siniakova was less dramatic in terms of off‑court theatrics. Osaka arrived in a more subdued, all‑white, shimmering outfit that would have looked at home on the lawns of Wimbledon rather than the hard courts of Flushing Meadows.
This contrasted with the eye‑catching ensemble she wore in her opening match – a long white skirt and hooded robe printed with newspaper clippings about her career. The understated look seemed to suit the 13th seed, who broke Siniakova early in the first set and never looked back, taking the opening set 6‑2. The second set proved more competitive.
Osaka built a 4‑2 lead and then 5‑3, but her serve faltered, and she was broken three consecutive times, eventually dropping the set 5‑7. After a brief lull, Osaka regrouped for the decider, dominating the third set and conceding only one game before sealing the match and moving on to the next round.
While Osaka was finishing her match, other headlines were emerging across the tournament. Two‑time US Open champion Iga Świątek breezed into the third round with a 6‑3 6‑2 win over Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska in just 71 minutes. This was only the second meeting between the two; their first encounter came in the 2020 French Open semi‑finals, where Świątek prevailed on her way to her first Grand Slam title.
The 2022 US Open champion, seeded eighth this year, broke early in the first set, took it 6‑3 and then secured a vital break in the opening game of the second set to stay firmly in control. Podoroska showed flashes of brilliance, but Świątek rarely felt pressure and closed out the match with a decisive match point. On the women’s side, American Madison Keys produced a thrilling comeback against Anna Bondár.
After dropping the first set 5‑7, Keys rallied to win the next two sets 6‑4 7‑6 (10‑5), saving five match points along the way. The 2017 US Open finalist, who later captured the 2025 Australian Open title, hit an impressive 34 forehand winners and credited the supportive home crowd for her resilience. After the win she quipped, "That was something, huh? No stress though – we all knew I had it, right?" The men’s draw saw a surprise upset as Canada’s third seed Felix Auger‑Aliassime became the highest‑seeded player eliminated at the US Open to date, falling to unseeded Russian Karen Khachanov in a second‑round thriller.
Khachanov, a 2022 semi‑finalist, broke Auger‑Aliassime’s serve seven times on Louis Armstrong Stadium and saved seven of nine break points, earning his second top‑10 Grand Slam victory. After a tightly contested first‑set tiebreak that Auger‑Aliassime edged, the Canadian could not sustain the momentum, winning only seven more games as Khachanov surged ahead. Elsewhere, American Felix Fritz continued his dominant start to the tournament, dispatching Italy’s Mattia Bellucci 6‑0 6‑1 6‑1 without dropping a set.
Fritz, the ninth seed, is among a small group of American men hoping to end a 23‑year drought without a male Grand Slam singles champion. His emphatic performance has solidified his position as a serious contender.
Overall, the US Open is delivering a mix of high‑level tennis, surprising upsets, and off‑court conversations about how the sport should be presented in the age of social media. Osaka’s call for influencers to respect tennis etiquette highlights a broader debate about balancing fan engagement with the integrity of the game. As the tournament progresses, players, organizers, and spectators will be watching closely to see how these issues evolve while the competition on the court continues to captivate audiences worldwide.