Major safety fears for children, stars left in tears and a cynical trade in autographs – inside the hysteria gripping tennis that fuelled shameless actions of ‘most hated man on the internet’

Iga Swiatek^[1] may be marching towards a second US Open title, but she is by a distance the second-most discussed Pole at Flushing Meadows.

That dubious distinction goes to Piotr Szczerek, the millionaire CEO of paving stone company Drogbruk^[2] who snatched a hat away from a boy after Kamil Majchrzak passed it into the crowd.

The incident^[3] gave a glimpse into a strange subculture of tennis fandom: the hunters of autographs and memorabilia.

Daily Mail Sport took a peak behind the curtain to see if the story of the millionaire CEO is an isolated incident.

We discovered an out-of-control, off-court frenzy for autographs that has been described to us as: ‘crazy’, ‘intense’ and ‘mayhem’. Here at the US Open the authorities have been forced to change their protocol after a steward was knocked to the ground by charging spectators.

The rush for autographs is, for some, about getting closer to their heroes, but there is a more sinister edge, too. Some unscrupulous individuals are targeting a lucrative Ebay^[4] market, and the Slams themselves are ripping off tennis fans by selling autograph-friendly memorabilia at inflated prices.

Piotr Szczerek, the millionaire CEO of paving stone company Drogbruk who snatched a hat away from a boy after Kamil Majchrzak passed it into the crowd.

The rush for autographs is, for some, about getting closer to their heroes, but there is a more sinister edge, too

Then fold in pushy parents, desperate for their children to get that treasured autograph, or cap or towel.

It’s a heady mix, driving, in some, an autograph and memorabilia hysteria. And it isn’t going unnoticed by the players – with some candid enough to admit they fear for the safety of some of the young children caught up in the rush.

Compared to most sports, such as football or NFL, the autograph of a tennis player is relatively easy to come by – if you know what you’re doing. But it does take planning, and ingenuity to get to the front of the queue.

There are threads on forums such as Reddit where fans discuss the best approach. Most tournaments publish practice schedules, so fans will stake out a player’s court and wait for them to sign at the end – this is especially easy at smaller events.

Where it can get a little chaotic is after a match at a Grand Slam. On Sunday, Barbora Krejcikova beat Taylor Townsend and, just as Townsend was about to play one of her eight match points, there was a sudden stampede of kids carrying those jumbo-sized tennis balls. They charged down a central aisle and mobbed behind the umpire’s chair, waiting for the end of the match.

It was a ridiculous situation – distracting to players and potentially dangerous – and Daily Mail Sport can reveal the USTA have changed their instructions to stewards after a couple of incidents this week.

Daily Mail Sport was told by a steward they had been told to control more tightly the marauding mobs after one of her colleagues had been pushed to the ground by charging kids.

‘They knocked someone down,’ said the steward. ‘It gets crazy, let me tell you – and it’s the parents, not so much the kids, it’s the parents that are pushing the kids down.

The hysteria isn’t going unnoticed by the players – with some candid enough to admit they fear for the safety of children

‘The tennis association have said if people do not have seats in this section we can’t allow them down. I feel bad because they’re kids, they want autographs, but we can’t allow it.

‘It got out of hand.’

We have also learned of another incident, in Saturday’s win for Venus Williams and Leylah Fernandez in the women’s doubles. The kids were allowed down towards the court too early and Norwegian player Ulrikke Eikeri ‘got really upset’, according to a courtside fan.

The USTA confirmed to Daily Mail Sport last night they had adjusted their fan movement policy in the interests of safety.

But children – and parents – won’t be thwarted. I spoke to fans Evan and Gilda and their son William, who was proudly clutching a ball covered in signatures.

‘They’ve started policing it more,’ said mum Gilda. ‘Now there’s more strategy – and more mayhem! I know way too much about it.’

She tells me the best spot to take up: not behind the player’s chair, as in the past, but in the corner where they conduct post-match interviews. William says you can also gather around the tunnel and lean down to have your ball signed. This practice had dangerous consequences for Novak Djokovic in Rome last year, when a water bottle fell from the backpack of a fan who was leaning over and brained him on the head.

No such worries here – backpacks are banned from Flushing Meadows.

Children and parents won’t be thwarted despite the USTA adjusting their fan movement policy

I ask Gilda and Evan whether they are ever concerned for William’s safety in the scrum.

‘No,’ says Evan. ‘Elbows out!’

‘Most of the adults are pretty good,’ adds Hilda. ‘There was a dad who was near my son, saw he had been waiting a while and said to me: “It’s OK, I got him”.’

Williams pipes up: ‘There were a couple of moms and they were like: “The line starts here!” where their daughter was.’

‘It’s a little intense,’ says Hilda.

There can be big money behind autographs – at both ends of the process. For the US Open, their jumbo Wilson balls retail at a staggering $50 a pop, with over 10,000 sold each year.

Then there are those who collect big-name autographs and sell them on as memorabilia. Ebay has listings – all from the same seller – of giant balls signed by Carlos Alcaraz ($2,000), Coco Gauff ($700), Bjorn Borg ($700) and Joao Fonseca ($2,000).

As we have heard, autograph hunting can get intense, but by and large the semi-organised chaos works.

Situations have been described as ‘a little intense’ – but big money and meeting heroes is at stake for some

Where things can get more messy, as we have seen, is when players give items of clothing to fans.

In the first week, No 3 seed Alexander Zverev sat down after his win and tossed a towel into the crowd over his shoulder, like a bride tossing a bouquet. Two grown men grabbed an end each and had a tug of war while the player sat oblivious.

I asked Leandro Riedi, the Swiss who lost to Alex De Minaur on Monday, about this phenomenon. ‘If I see a little boy screaming he wants the towel, I won’t just throw it into the crowd,’ he said. ‘I will give him the towel and make sure he’s safe, he’s not getting pushed too much.

‘I always look at the person and give it to them because of course they’re going to fight over it – maybe not for my towel but the top, top guys.’

Canada’s Felix-Auger Aliassime, asked about the affair of the Polish CEO, said: ‘I get it – I didn’t have an incident like that (as a player) but it happened to me as a kid.

‘In Montreal, I was probably 13, and I was with friends. I went to grab a wrist band and I got hit in the face and my nose started bleeding. I was, like, my God, I’m bleeding for a wrist band.

‘After that I would kind of just stay back and let the others fight for the sweaty stuff.’

Swiatek, after her match on Monday, was careful to hand something to a specific kid in the stands. I wondered if she had learned from the incident involving her fellow Poles, but she said she was unaware of a story which seems to not really have penetrated the locker room.

Iga Swiatek, after her match on Monday, was careful to hand something to a specific kid

‘Usually like seven people reach out for one thing,’ said the world No 2. ‘For example, if it’s a girl and the boys have longer arms – she’s not going to catch it. So I throw at the person that is supposed to get it.

‘When I try to give something to a kid and an adult grabs it, then I try to be like, “Come on”.’

Does it not feel very bizarre for these players to witness the febrile desire to possess an item of their sweaty clothing?

‘No,’ said Swiatek, ‘because I would love to have a sweaty towel of Rafa’s when I was a kid.’

Fair enough.

The apparently brazen snatching of a cap from a young child by paving firm CEO Piotr Szczerek has captured world attention for the callousness of the act. The shock on the child’s face. The precision with which Mr Szczerek grabs the cap, and tucks it into his bag. He has been billed as the ‘most hated man on the internet’. His life and motives have been pored over, and he has been forced to issue an apology.

But his cruel cameo has shone a light on a wider problem rearing up at tennis’s biggest events. A hysteria driven by fandom and memorabilia touts that tennis authorities are grappling to control.

It’s clear to at least one tennis player that people need to calm down. As the Canadian player Felix Auger-Aliassime put it: ‘There’s plenty of players and plenty of wristbands for everyone.’