Most sporting occasions are higher with firm. Basketball is extra enjoyable when you’ve got somebody to lose your voice with after a buzzer-beater, baseball virtually begs for a good friend to separate a pretzel and a seventh-inning scorching canine, and if we’re being trustworthy, half the enjoyable of soccer is feeding off the collective roar of the group. However tennis performs by totally different guidelines. The game’s hushed etiquette — the place applause is available in bursts and conversations pause throughout rallies — would not precisely lend itself to rowdy group outings. As a substitute, it is quietly turn out to be a haven for a rising breed of sports activities followers: the solo spectator.
On the US Open Tennis Championships, one of many largest sporting occasions within the nation, it is surprisingly frequent to identify folks wandering the grounds alone, Honey Deuce in hand, hopping from courtroom to courtroom with nobody to seek the advice of however themselves. They are not answering the inevitable “the place are you?” textual content. They don’t seem to be debating the place to seize lunch, compromising on which match to look at subsequent, or attempting to maintain the group collectively as they weave by means of a crowded stadium. They’re merely having fun with tennis on their very own phrases.
For Manessa Lormejuste, attending a tennis match alone is not a backup plan — it is the best expertise. In truth, she enjoys taking herself on solo tennis dates a lot that, along with final 12 months’s US Open, she traveled internationally to attend the 2025 Australian Open on her personal. “I like having full management of my day, and if I am going to a tennis match on my own, I am not encumbered by anybody else’s needs or wants,” she says. “I am going about my day seamlessly and, to be trustworthy, issues simply normally go my approach once I’m alone.”
With out worrying about another person’s schedule or preferences, Lormejuste says that each determination turns into delightfully low stakes. She will settle into the expertise at her personal tempo and comply with no matter match, participant, or second captures her consideration. With nowhere to be besides wherever she desires, the day turns into much less about sticking to a plan and extra about embracing no matter occurs subsequent.
In some ways, tennis tournaments are designed for precisely this sort of spontaneity. In contrast to soccer or basketball, the place your ticket sometimes anchors you in a single seat for hours, the US Open (and most tennis tournaments, normally) invitations followers to roam.
Past the marquee stadiums, dozens of matches unfold concurrently throughout the grounds. You’ll be able to catch a rising teenager on Courtroom 7, come across a doubles thriller on Courtroom 12, then wander over to apply courts the place a number of the largest stars on this planet are casually hitting balls only a few ft away. Oh, and between all of the motion, you possibly can cease at one of many many model activations providing all the pieces from free samples and product demos to interactive video games, picture alternatives, and unique event giveaways.
And being alone would not essentially imply being lonely. “I’ve realized to be assured in my very own selections once I attend occasions solo,” says Maiyan Pearl, who attended the US Open by herself in 2024. “Once you’re in a gaggle, it is easy to depend on different folks to name the Uber or e-book the journey or purchase the ticket, however if you’re alone, you are pressured to take initiative and make a plan primarily based solely on what you wish to do.”
Plus, if you’re calling the photographs, there’s one thing undeniably liberating about spending a day with out accommodating anybody else’s preferences. Need to watch 4 straight hours of doubles? Go for it. Want a day break within the shade? Nobody’s speeding you. Really feel like leaving early since you’ve seen sufficient? That is totally your name.
That very same independence additionally leaves room for the form of moments you possibly can’t plan. “I ended up operating into an previous good friend from school who additionally occurred to be on the US Open fully alone, and I in all probability would not have gotten to meet up with them as a lot as I did had I been with a gaggle,” Pearl says. “Generally going with the circulate results in one of the best experiences.”
However the sudden moments aren’t the one payoff. Many solo attendees describe the expertise as surprisingly extra immersive. Chloe Panes, who normally attends the US Open together with her household, determined to attempt going solo for someday final 12 months and seen a right away distinction. “I am positively extra locked into the sport once I’m on my own,” she says.
With out facet conversations or commentary after each level, it is simpler to choose up on the little belongings you may in any other case miss in a gaggle setting, just like the participant’s physique language, technique, and sheer athleticism. Lormejuste agrees, including, “Once I go to matches with buddies, it is extra of a social factor, however once I go alone, I am much more targeted on the precise sport.”
In an period the place even informal plans can require limitless group chats, calendar juggling, and a shocking quantity of coordination, the US Open may simply be the proper occasion to expertise by yourself. For these solo daters, the one schedule to comply with is the order of play — and that is precisely how they prefer it.
Andi Breitowich is a Chicago-based freelance author and graduate from Emory College and Northwestern College’s Medill College of Journalism. Her work has appeared in PS, Girls’s Well being, Cosmopolitan, and elsewhere.
