Tennis is hot now. The US Open is bursting at the seams.

livemint.com:

If you want to find some consensus among tennis fans at the U.S. Open, ask them how they feel about the crowds. Young and old.

Novices and lifelong pushers. Alcaraz obsessives and Djokovic defenders. All agree that the Open’s notoriously raucous masses have swelled like a rising junior’s ego.

“A couple years ago it felt empty on a Tuesday," said Leigh Silver, 34, of Philadelphia, wearing a worn-in tie-dye U.S. Open cap, as she waded through the crowds to make her way over to see Frenchman Arthur Fils take on America’s Learner Tien. Every year, said Silver, there are just more and more people.

It’s more than a feeling: On Monday night, Open organizers sent a proud press release noting that the tournament’s opening day set a single-day attendance record of 74,641 people. Many on the grounds grumble about the tournament overselling tickets, jamming in too many people. But the last grand slam of the year rolls in as tennis is basking in a broader cultural renaissance.

The overstuffed U.S. Open is wobbling with those aftershocks. Yes, there’s Zendaya’s “Challengers" and Netflix’s “Break Point." World No.

1 Jannik Sinner is doing his best Zoolander impression in Gucci billboards and Naomi Osaka’s mega-bowed kit is going viral. But many fans I spoke with laid the credit, or perhaps blame, for this tennis boomlet on social media. “It’s all over TikTok," said Michelle Aninye, 27, of New York on the second day of the Open.

She had stopped outside the mammoth Arthur Ashe arena to take a photo (using, it should be noted, a film camera, yet another Gen-Z fixation) with her friend Bolu Johnson, 28. The pair cited TikTok-happy players like Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff with boosting the sport’s cachet. “You’re seeing some of the best