The U.S. Open’s opening night gala has always been something of a mixed-doubles event, with a crowd of svelte socialites and sculpted athletes rubbing shoulders and writing checks, and all waiting for the main event: courtside tennis at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, after the canapés and speeches.
On Sunday, however, this year’s gala — a benefit for the U.S.T.A. Foundation — added an extra wrinkle: The honoree, Sloane Stephens, was an active competitor in the tournament. In fact, Stephens arrived to be honored shortly after leaving the practice courts to get ready for her first-round match.
“I’ve never accepted an award the day before I started a Slam,” said Stephens, the 2017 women’s singles champion whose own philanthropic organization was lauded for its work bringing tennis to underprivileged children. “But there’s a first time for everything.”
The gala itself was also experiencing a first, having been transferred from the luxe bunker of a dining room inside Ashe to a hangar-like temporary home on the grounds of the U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, with practice courts just beyond the event’s blue-velvet curtains.
Thus, a steady squeak of tennis shoes and the thwack of tennis balls punctuated speakers’ remarks, with some guests — including the fashion designer Vera Wang and the socialite Cheryl Scharf, two “tennis psychos,” in Wang’s description — watching practice before the event began. (Thankfully, no errant shots interrupted the proceedings.)
The gala, which organizers said raised $2.7 million for the U.S.T.A. Foundation, typically coincides with the first day of singles competition at the U.S. Open, with guests invited to take in two matches from the baseline view in the President’s Suite.
As such, it tends to draw secret tennis fans out from celebrity ranks, including actors like Orlando Bloom, who politely declined an interview, but happily mixed with other attendees. There were the Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn and Katie Couric, the broadcast luminary and gala regular who continues to hone her skills in pickleball, the sport of many of us amateur former tennis players.
What’s her favorite shot? she was asked.
“Every once in a while, I have a killer serve,” Couric replied. (We all do, Katie, we all do.)
Vonn, who has skied with U.S. Open champions and Hall of Famers like Roger Federer, said she saw some connective tissue between the downhill and the hardcourt, ticking off a list of famous tennis players who like the slopes. “The mentality of the two sports is similar,” she said. “You have to have a fearlessness. You can’t get tight.”
That said, the comparisons kind of ended there. “You make a mistake in ski racing, you have big problems,” said Vonn, who is currently recovering from a knee injury and a broken leg. “In tennis, it’s not a big deal. You just play the next point.”
Still, for a city still basking in the Knicks’ championship and a festive summer of World Cup soccer, the spirit of competition seemed to be everywhere, including with the evening’s M.C., Gayle King, who recounted playing table tennis with Naomi Osaka, another former singles champ and frequent fashion provocateur.
“She wore high heels, I wore tennis shoes,” King recalled, adding, “I won’t tell you how that turned out, but let’s just say it was fun.”
After dinner in the makeshift ballroom, the well-dressed guests tramped across the teeming U.S. Open grounds to the newly rehabbed President’s Suite, complete with deep blue banquettes and ample Honey Deuces and palomas.
The two matches on opening night were epic, with two legends — Novak Djokovic and Venus Williams — both losing in humid conditions. (Many guests had left by the time the action ended around 2 a.m.)
One of the first to leave the party was Stephens herself, who had to get up and play on Monday. She said she had been touched by a speech by Riley Woodson, a 15-year-old protégée from Los Angeles, who broke into tears telling the gala crowd how important it was to be noticed by the tennis star. (“Thank you for seeing me,” Woodson had said to Stephens, leading to some crying in the audience as well.)
Stephens, who is 33 and almost a decade away from her U.S. Open championship, had said earlier that she had wondered whether she should keep playing professionally. But she, too, said that the acknowledgment she received on Sunday — like a big win on center court — had helped her continue.
“It doesn’t happen very often,” she said. “So it’s beautiful.”
