On the debut night time of the 2024 US Open, the USTA Basis hosted its twenty third annual Opening Night time Gala from the gleaming aerie of Arthur Ashe Stadium’s President’s Suite (if new to tennis geography: Arthur Ashe is the flagship enviornment on the Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Middle in Queens, New York, the place the US Open is held).
The occasion drew the likes of Vera Wang, Alec Baldwin, Anna Wintour, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and plenty of extra, who loved a fast cocktail half-hour earlier than a seated dinner and fundraising public sale forward of the night’s first contest: Sloane Stephens versus Clara Burel (Stephens, a former US Open champion, would win her first set handily earlier than in the end dropping the match).
The Annual Gala serves as a charity occasion for the USTA Basis, which helps underprivileged youth country-wide by means of tennis and teaching programs. Since 2015, the group has bestowed one thing referred to as the Serving Up Desires Award, which works to a person or people who embody the values of devoted service aligned with the Basis’s mission. 2024’s recipient? Andy Roddick, whose eponymous group carries out comparable youth-centric philanthropic efforts.
“We began off with a tennis clinic within the 12 months 2000,” says Roddick, sitting comfortable in one of many President’s Suite’s corners. “And now, we serve 50,000 youngsters a day in central Texas.” He provides, humbly: “In the home of Arthur and the middle of Billie, to get this honor on this place, amongst these big names… I’m pleased with it personally, however I’m happier for our employees, our workforce, and our children.”
Roddick is the latest American man to win a Grand Slam–the US Open, again in 2003. He has remained deeply concerned with the game, his basis however; Roddick runs a well-liked podcast referred to as “Served” and has stayed a tennis celeb even throughout the period of people who adopted him (assume: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic). He’s as shut as anybody to the game’s evolution, which has had a zenith 12 months in 2024–and loads of spillover into popular culture (Challengers, et al.)
“I believe when it seemed like we had been ultimately going to lose Roger and Serena to retirement, Venus too, and I don’t know if we’ll see Rafa once more, I used to be sort of involved that there can be a vacuum of curiosity. Once you lose your greatest stars, it’s a logical thought. However… I used to be utterly mistaken. The COVID-era bump in participation is now manifesting in fandom. And it looks as if each week, there’s a brand new doc on the streamers. Tennis’s story is getting instructed an increasing number of.”
