Celebs flock to U.S. Open to cheer on Serena, their favorite players

NEW YORK — Seven-time Grammy Award-winner Gladys Knight comes to the U.S. Open almost every year and has for longer than she’s willing to say.

She's just one of the many celebrities who have made appearances at the tournament. Others include Alec Baldwin, Dustin Johnson, Forest Whitaker, Jamie Foxx, Jeff Gordon, Kelly Rowland, Luke Wilson, Martha Stewart, Sandra Bernhard, Tiger Woods, Tom Brokaw, Uzo Aduba, Vanessa Williams, Victor Cruz and Wayne Gretzky.

On Tuesday night’s VIP list: Kim Kardashian and her sister Kendall Jenner. Donald Trump, Holly Hunter, Kendrick Lamar and Joe Jonas to name just a few.

“My whole family, including my husband, knows how much I love tennis,” Knight told USA Today Sports on Monday, when she took in day and night sessions at Arthur Ashe Stadium. “My husband said, ‘You need a vacation – go to the Open.’”

Players, for their part, often know when celebrities are around.

One of the matches Knight watched Monday was a fourth round faceoff between French Open winner Stan Wawrinka and American Donald Young. Young, who lost that match, said in a news conference afterwards that, yes, he knew Knight was watching.

“I see everything,” Young said. “[I] looked at the Jumbotron. They put her name up, and the crowd went wild. It was cool to see her out there. Just any time those type of people show up and you’re playing on the court, you kind of feel special.”

Some players try not to notice much of anything flashed on the Jumbotrons up high in Ashe.

“I’m not watching the screen,” says world No. 2 Simona Halep, who’ll play former U.S. Open finalist Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals. “It’s tough to be concentrated on other things.”

Halep said Olympic champion gymnast Nadia Comaneci, a vocal supporter who Halep knows, may come to her next match, and she’d welcome that.

The USTA compiles a list of celebrities expected to attend each session and circulates it to various departments. According to Michael Fiur, executive producer of US Open Entertainment, tournament officials come to know of celebrities attending in various ways. Celebrities may request tickets, either directly or through agents and others, or the tournament may extend an invitation. The tournament also finds out through sponsors and players who invite celebrities, and sometimes they just discover them on their own.

“We ask that any celebrity who attends as our guest walk the ‘US Open Blue Carpet’ doing photographs and/or interviews, as well as interviews with various broadcast outlets,” says Fiur.

Celebrities expected to attend the men’s and women’s finals this weekend include Stanley Tucci, Robin Roberts, Uma Thurman, Bradley Cooper, Kristen Wiig, Hugh Jackman and Shonda Rhimes.

It seems celebrities, especially those who attend regularly, are at the tournament to see and not just be seen.

Rowland, a member of Destiny’s Child, watched several of Serena Williams’ matches this year. She spoke to USA Today Sports on Friday night after Williams’ three-set win over Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the third round, a match during which Rowland cheered loudly and regularly. While the match had her “sweating,” Rowland said she knew Williams would pull through.

“Because she’s just a lion,” said Rowland. “She comes out here to win.”

Knight too follows Serena closely and watches her sister Venus too.

“They’re like my little sisters,” says Knight, adding that she knows their family and knew them before they started playing tennis.

Knight has “no doubt” Serena can win the U.S. Open title, thereby completing the calendar Grand Slam, but for now is mainly impressed by how Williams is handling the pressure in the face of nonstop questions.

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“I mean, she’s won everything,” says Knight. “That’s like someone asking me – [when] I got Grammys – ‘You going to win eight more?’”

A few hours afterwards, on Monday night, in the middle of a fourth round night match between Samantha Stosur and Flavia Pennetta, Arthur Ashe Stadium Jumbotrons zoomed in on New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, who smiled and waved to the crowd. Sitting in a VIP box with actors Jesse Metcalfe, Cara Santana and others, Cruz later took in the match between John Isner and Roger Federer.

Cruz is a tennis fan, and this is his second year attending the U.S. Open.

Live tennis feels different, he says: “It’s a lot more intimate than what it looks like on TV. Being here you feel like you can reach out and touch the players right there on the court.”

Cruz mainly follows the Williams sisters, Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Isner. The player he wants to see most this year is Federer.

“I’m a huge fan,” Cruz says. “I kind of take what he does on the court to what I do on the field… No matter what’s happening he’s always chill, calm and reserved.”

Cruz will be back Wednesday, and as the U.S. Open nears its conclusion this weekend, he certainly won’t be the only star around.