AILSA CHANG, HOST:
It is rare that we can even say this, but the U.S. Open kicked off yesterday with chaos in the stands.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GREG ALLENSWORTH: First serve.
UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR: Oh.
ALLENSWORTH: Ladies and gentlemen, because of the delay caused by an outside interference, first serve has been granted.
(BOOING)
CHANG: Those jeers and whistles you're hearing caused a 6-minute delay in a match between the unseeded French player Benjamin Bonzi and the 2021 champion, the 13th seed from Russia, Daniil Medvedev. The drama started when a photographer walked onto the court during gameplay. The umpire called for Bonzi to repeat his first serve, which he had previously missed, and Medvedev was furious, hurling insults at the umpire and inciting the crowd. Medvedev eventually lost the match.
Matt Futterman is a senior tennis writer with The Athletic, covering the U.S. Open, and he joins us now from Flushing Meadows, New York. Welcome.
MATT FUTTERMAN: Thanks for having me, Ailsa.
CHANG: So what did you personally make of what happened in last night's match?
FUTTERMAN: I made that it was the kind of thing that, you know, a tournament dreams of on a first day, in the sense that it's a headline-grabbing moment...
CHANG: (Laughter).
FUTTERMAN: ...Internet friendly moment - lots of videos buzzing around. What could be better for publicity at the start of a big event?
CHANG: Definite drama. And you've written that tennis is undergoing a sort of shift in tone. Like, you write, quote, "at the U.S. Open, tennis etiquette no longer rules." Can you talk more about that? Like, I get this sport has always been a little bit louder, a little bit brasher in New York, but more broadly, what do you see changing in tennis?
FUTTERMAN: I guess what I see is tennis trying - or at least some people in tennis trying to make it a little less precious. Of course, look, sportsmanship is always going to be important and should be important. But, you know, there's - the kinds of things that, you know, are just sort of pro forma in the NBA and the...
CHANG: Yeah.
FUTTERMAN: ...NFL, they just - like, they don't happen in tennis. And certainly play - star players like Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe, they really want it. I mean, these are, like, sort of brash Americans who grew up as, you know, massive sports fans. And there's a - there's sort of a growing cohort that believes that tennis could really use a little more NBA.
CHANG: Yeah. OK, well, this was just Day 1 of the U.S. Open. Is there anything else that you're watching for, besides more drama?
FUTTERMAN: Well, we definitely want more drama.
CHANG: (Laughter).
FUTTERMAN: We'll start there. The other thing that I'm always watching at the...
CHANG: Yeah.
FUTTERMAN: ...U.S. Open is this amazing thing that happens in New York because it's such a diverse city and there's just so many immigrant communities here - really just about every country is represented.
CHANG: Absolutely.
FUTTERMAN: You know, you have a moment like yesterday, when Alexandra Eala becomes the first Filipino woman to win a Grand Slam match. And it was just packed with - you know, there were Filipinos everywhere. So I think that's what makes tennis so different at the U.S. Open. It's - all over the world, it's a pretty homogeneous crowd, and then it comes to New York and, you know, all bets are off.
CHANG: Matt Futterman is a senior tennis writer with The Athletic. Thank you so much, Matt.
FUTTERMAN: Thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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