‘Game, set, matchmaker'? The US Open gets into the dating game
– Last week, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) made an unexpected announcement. The US Open, one of the sport's four Grand Slam tournaments, will be inserting itself in the saturated world of reality-show dating.
The announcement raised a few eyebrows and set off widespread online chatter that is best encapsulated on Instagram by professional tennis player and US Open contender Donna Vekic, who said: 'Wait what?'
According to a statement from the USTA, the tournament will host its own reality series, set at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre in Queens. The eight-episode series, called 'Game, Set, Matchmaker,' will be filmed the week before the event begins in late August. It will air on YouTube during the tournament.
The bachelorette at the centre of the series is Ilana Sedaka, a 'tennis-savvy' 24-year-old former figure-skating champion and Pilates teacher, who was born and raised in Long Island and now lives in Miami. She will be matched with seven men, and will go on dates that will include playing games and exploring the tennis centre. A contestant will be sent home at the end of each episode.
'My hope is to bring a little joy, a little chaos and a whole lot of realness to the court,' Sedaka said in a news release. The USTA did not divulge how Sedaka was chosen or share any details on the male contestants.
The decision to film a dating show – and the sponsorships it drew from Dobel Tequila and Moet & Chandon – illustrates that, at the end of the day, 'sports is a business,' said Marsha-Gaye Knight, an assistant professor at the Preston Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport at New York University. Knight added that 'sport and culture are very intertwined,' whether that's tennis, basketball or football.
'Let's be honest, a lot of people watch tennis because Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are there,' she said.
Basketball star Stephen Curry, actress Tina Fey and Vogue's global editorial director, Anna Wintour, all attended the 2024 US Open.
The other Grand Slams, which are held in London, Paris and Melbourne, Australia, consistently draw their own star-studded audiences, too. And celebrity fashion choices at the games become social media catnip for their fans, Knight said.
At a moment when shows like the 'Love Island' franchises, 'The Bachelor' and 'Love Is Blind' seem to have overtaken cultural conversation, putting on a dating show is an attempt by the USTA to bolster the sport's cultural cachet beyond tennis purists.
'We are trying to attract an entirely new audience, reaching fans at the intersection of tennis, pop culture and entertainment,' a spokesperson for the association said in an e-mailed statement.
The USTA has also been trying to boost participation in tennis. According to research conducted by the association, 1 in 12 Americans – about 26 million people – played tennis in 2024, which is the highest it has been in five years.
That makes it among the most popular sports in the United States; recent research found that 28 million Americans play basketball and just over 15 million play baseball.
Despite that level of participation, professional tennis still draws a far smaller viewing audience than football and basketball in the United States, according to a recent market research report , and Generation Z, Knight added, simply is not watching sports on television as much as previous generations .
'The US Open realises that for them to appeal to new audiences and tap into new sectors, they have to go where audiences are,' Knight said. 'Audiences are no longer chasing sports; we have to now chase our audiences.' NYTIMES
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
US Open announces record $90 million prize money
NEW YORK :The U.S. Open announced $90 million in prize money will be on offer at this year's final major, marking the largest purse in tennis history, up 20 per cent from 2024. Top players in the ATP and WTA called for more equitable distribution of revenue at the four Grand Slams this year, as those at the top of the game are able to benefit from increased prize money while players at the lower levels often struggle. The U.S. Open prize pool is up from $75 million in 2024, the previous highest-ever purse. Men's and women's singles winners will earn $5 million each, up from $3.6 million last year. The tournament will also see double-digit percentage increases across all rounds in all events, after "years of a strategic focus on redistribution to the early rounds and qualifying tournament," organisers said. Singles action at the U.S. Open has been expanded to 15 days, amid booming attendance, and will take place from August 24 to September 7. A new format in the mixed doubles is being introduced this year, with the event featuring many big-name singles players as it will be taking place over two days in the week before the main competition kicks off at Flushing Meadows. U.S. Open attendance topped one million fans for the first time in 2024.
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
US Open announces record $100m in prize money
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox The US Open prize pool is up from US$75 million in 2024, the previous highest-ever purse. NEW YORK - The US Open announced US$90 million ((S$115 million) in prize money will be on offer at this year's final major, marking the largest purse in tennis history, up 20 per cent from 2024. Top players in the ATP and WTA called for more equitable distribution of revenue at the four Grand Slams this year, as those at the top of the game are able to benefit from increased prize money while players at the lower levels often struggle. The US Open prize pool is up from US$75 million in 2024, the previous highest-ever purse. Men's and women's singles winners will earn US$5 million each, up from US$3.6 million in 2024. The tournament will also see double-digit percentage increases across all rounds in all events, after 'years of a strategic focus on redistribution to the early rounds and qualifying tournament,' organisers said. Singles action at the US Open has been expanded to 15 days, amid booming attendance, and will take place from Aug 24 to Sept 7. A new format in the mixed doubles is being introduced this year, with the event featuring many big-name singles players as it will be taking place over two days in the week before the main competition kicks off at Flushing Meadows. US Open attendance topped one million fans for the first time in 2024. REUTERS
Straits Times
7 hours ago
- Straits Times
Russian mum influencer breaks back trying Nicki Minaj stiletto challenge
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Influencer Mariana Vasiuc tried to keep her balance on one foot on a tub of baby formula stacked on top of an overturned saucepan atop a countertop. Just eight weeks after giving birth, a 32-year-old Russian mum influencer tried the Nicki Minaj stiletto challenge that has taken TikTok by storm in recent weeks – and failed spectacularly. She broke her back. Yet, Ms Mariana Vasiuc said on social media it had all been worth it because it had, in a way, made her even more popular than if she had succeeded in the acrobatic act. In a video she posted on Instagram on Aug 1 that had been seen over 500,000 times and reposted many times on TikTok, Ms Vasiuc can be seen trying to keep her balance – while wearing a pair of high heels and sitting cross-legged – on one foot on a tub of baby formula stacked on top of an overturned saucepan atop a countertop. Off to the side, someone is holding her right hand, as she holds another tub of baby formula with her other hand. As soon as she lets go of the hand , however, she loses her balance and falls – back first – off to one corner of the table. In a since-deleted caption on her Instagram post, Ms Vasiuc said she sustained a compression flexion fracture: a vertebra – or a bone in the spinal column – is compressed or squashed to a forward-bending force. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Recent rail disruptions disappointing and 'we can and will do better': Jeffrey Siow Singapore ST Explains: What is a track point fault and why does it cause lengthy train disruptions? Singapore 'It's either my life or the dog's': NSF rescues lost dog which was hit by car in Bedok Singapore 81 primary schools to hold ballot for Phase 2C of Primary 1 registration Sport Young Lions and distance runner Soh Rui Yong out of SEA Games contingent Singapore Two workers died after being hit by flying gas cylinders in separate incidents in 2025 Singapore 19 drivers nabbed over illegal ride-hailing services in Singapore and across border with Malaysia Singapore Man recruited victim to open bank account, forced him to drink urine after account was frozen 'Irony? Karma? Or just life, which always tests our strength at the most unexpected moment,' she wrote lightheartedly in the caption. Ms Vasiuc was hopping on a viral TikTok trend that sprouted from a 2013 music video showing hip-hop artiste Nicki Minaj striking an iconic pose: She crouches poolside in sky-high heels with one leg crossed over the other, balancing her weight on one foot. Influencers trying to amass views and likes and sell products have upped the ante by replicating the pose on absurdly unstable platforms – stacks of Spam cans, champagne bottles, traffic cones, even surfboards – while wearing high‑heeled stilettos. One viral video, with over 61.7 million views, shows a nail salon worker balancing in gold stilettos on the caps of two bottles of nail polish. Ms Vasiuc wrote in a follow-up post on Aug 4 that because of her spectacular fall, she is now a 'popular person'. 'More than 50 people sent me my reel from different publications today,' she said. 'I'm doing great, following the guidelines and now living in 'star' status.' Her Aug 4 post already had over 600,000 views as of Aug 6. It did not seem to matter to her that most of those who saw her video seemed to be mocking her. 'How do you say 'imbecile' in Russian?' one asked on Instagram. 'I bet the baby daddy is re-evaluating his choices,' said another. Others took a shot at the challenge itself. 'Here we are teaching our kids not to follow stupid social media trends, and yet here is an 'adult' doing it,' said one. Some wished her a smooth recovery. 'You are brave,' said a more sympathetic commenter.
