The U.S. Open provides access to hundreds of thousands of tennis fans and millions of viewers for weeks at a time—and brands want a piece of that audience.

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens had 776,120 fans on the grounds during the two weeks of the 2022 U.S. Open main draw. That surpassed the previous record of 737,872 set in 2019 and sold out every event in Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first time in the tournament’s 25 year history.

If you include the opening Fan Week, 2022 U.S. Open attendance balloons to 888,044—exceeding its previous best of 853,227 in 2019.

The average of 1.21 million viewers who watched last year’s Open events on ESPN lags behind only 2015 (when 1.27 million watched Serena Williams go for a calendar Grand Slam) and 2019 (1.28 million). Granted, many of the attendees and viewers were there for what became Williams’ last U.S. Open as a player, and matches involving Williams and fellow U.S. stars Coco Gauff and Frances Tiafoe scored higher ratings than the men’s and women’s finals. 

That continues to make the U.S. Open and its hard courts fertile ground for sports marketing. With matches already under way, here are some of the brands looking to score a few points in the early sessions.

Evian

When you’ve been a U.S. Open sponsor for more than 35 years, your logo is all over the event site and every athlete and fan is already drinking your water and showing off your label, what do you do to make a statement?

If you’re evian, you go experiential: rent a Circle Line tourist boat, set up a pink tennis court on the deck, get longtime endorser and 2007 U.S. Open women’s champ Maria Sharapova aboard and invite a select few fans for a cruise around Manhattan during the men’s final. Sharapova will chat about the previous day’s women’s final with fellow tennis star Andrea Petkovic before volleying with one lucky contest winner—who will also get tickets to the 2024 U.S. Open.

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