The U.S. Open Player Walk-Out Starts In Ashe Stadium

The player hallway in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest venue at the site of the U.S. Open.

USTA

On the opening day of the 2025 U.S. Open, top-ranked Taylor Fritz took on Emilio Nava on the Billie jean King National Tennis Center’s second-largest court, Louis Armstrong Stadium. It wasn’t a quick walk to get there.

Every match features a well-orchestrated player walk, originating from the practice desk in the player spaces within Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest venue on site. And while popular American star Ben Shelton was playing on Ashe—just a few steps from the practice desk—getting everywhere else on site features a bit more legwork.

To get to Armstrong, Fritz and Nava traveled along the Ashe hallways, through the commissary, across the loading dock, down a set of stairs and around crates of goods coming into the site. From there, they entered Armstrong at ground level and walked past the ball crew lounge as ESPN cameras picked up the walk. The players made a quick left and immediate right into the player entrance, which included a handful of stairs to get to the court level. The players then waited while the on-court emcee called them out of the dark tunnel into the bright sunshine of the Armstrong court.

Getting to Armstrong is one of the trickiest walks on the site, Christine Stromberg, director of U.S. Open player services, tells me. The players don’t need to do it alone. On the way to the court, a USTA player escort leads the way, followed by the two players and security.

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The USTA has between 30 and 35 paid player escorts working across multiple shifts during the tournament. Stromberg says the player escort’s job is to find the most efficient route from Ashe to the court, while security is there to manage the crowd. “The first priority is making sure the players are safe and feel safe,” she says.

The farthest walk from Ashe is Court 17, about a seven-minute adventure in the high-traffic of the U.S. Open. The trickiest may be the Armstrong walk—some players may prefer to go through public spaces to get to Armstrong, but that presents a security challenge with high-profile players such as Fritz.

Really, though, field courts 15 and 16 are the most difficult. The courts are nearly as far away as Court 17, but often more crowded and with no reserved player holding areas. When fans know players are on the way, it can get even busier.

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Four courts have tunnels. The tunnels at Armstrong and Grandstand are largely functional for simply entering the court (the Grandstand walk includes a public portion before entering the back-of-house section), while Court 17 offers a way to keep players away from the public as they wait for the emcee to call them onto the court.

Ashe has a completely different experience, with a long hallway designed for ESPN’s production needs leading to the tunnel and the “Pressure is a Privilege” sign, a quote from the site’s namesake, Billie Jean King, on the way out.

Other than Ashe, the next closest court is Court 6, just steps from the player spaces at Ashe.

The busiest time of day occurs each morning, as most courts start play at 11 a.m. That means the escorts holding up paddles with their court start happening as early as 10:45 a.m. As Stromberg says, once the referee’s office clears a match for play, one of the USTA’s two announcers calls the players to the practice desk. Sometimes players are hanging out nearby, outside in the warmup space, alone in the locker room or really in any number of player spaces. The USTA often sends Court 17 and players on courts with the longest walks out first.

On occasion a player may go to the court on their own, especially if they are practicing nearby for a morning match. That’s allowed.

An active player escort will log 25,000 to 30,000 steps per day. They just hope they don’t get lost near the Ashe loading docks.

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