NEW YORK — It's probably fitting that in the world's economic and marketing capital, a Grand Slam tennis tournament doubles as one giant product-placement opportunity.
Little-known players who play on stadium courts end up with last-minute patches stuck onto their kits. Their lesser-known coaches wear hats from brands such as the IT company Infosys and the used-car retailer Carvana.
The week before the U.S. Open is a strange mélange of tennis-related activations. Aryna Sabalenka appears at a Brooklyn Heights pizza joint to promote an energy drink. The Waldorf Astoria puts a tennis court in its famed ballroom for an exhibition with Tommy Paul, Maria Sakkari, Ben Shelton and Leylah Fernandez to promote its new global racquet club venture. Jannik Sinner, injured and back home, chimes in from afar on social media , saying he misses everyone at the U.S. Open, including "@baccarathotels and the whole team who always makes me feel at home."
As the field gets winnowed down and all but the biggest stars and some supporting characters remain, there's a pretty good chance tennis fans might scratch their heads and wonder why so many coaches are wearing swag with one of two or three ubiquitous logos.
One of the most prominent is Eight Sleep.
The company makes high-tech mattress covers that users can heat or cool to their desired temperature. The product tracks sleep patterns and measures users' quality of rest. It is not to be confused with IM8, the nutritional supplement company co-founded by David Beckham.
IM8 has Sabalenka as an ambassador. Her coaching staff has worn IM8 swag, though things can get confusing because her coach, Anton Dubrov, is now part of the Eight Sleep team.
Sabalenka, the two-time reigning champion and world No. 1, plays most of her matches in Arthur Ashe Stadium and many of those in primetime. The camera often shifts to her coaching box. That's a lot of airtime for Eight Sleep, even though Sabalenka does not directly endorse the company.
Dubrov does. So does Frédéric Fontang, who coaches Jiří Lehečka, and Michael Russell, who coaches Taylor Fritz, and Jamie Delgado, who coaches Grigor Dimitrov.
On Russell, the logo for Eight Sleep has to fight for attention, since Russell is the closest thing tennis coaching has to a NASCAR driver. He wears patches from Waterdrop and Solinco. Hats from Eight Sleep and Papatui, a men's skincare brand founded by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Sometimes, Russell wears a Carvana shirt.
Carvana is another of the logos that are everywhere at this U.S. Open — it's on the coaching teams of Amanda Anisimova, Madison Keys and many more.
Alexandra Zatarain, a co-founder of Eight Sleep, said the company has worked with athletes, including Fritz, but these days it often makes more sense to work with their coaches.
They are the ones who set a player's routine, working with a nutritionist on what they eat, and with a physiotherapist and fitness trainer to plan the athlete's preparation and recovery, practices that have become far more complex over the last decade. Optimizing sleep is a big part of that.
"We had this idea of just, 'Oh, what if we make the coaches our partners because they are actually a really important partner in making sure that the player stays on track in terms of all of their health,'" Zatarain said.
And, fortuitously for would-be sponsors, something happened in tennis that made these arrangements even more appealing. Coaches are allowed to coach more openly. They don't have to speak with hidden signals, like removing a hat when they want a player to serve wide or standing and clapping when they want the player to move closer to the net.
In 2022, the U.S. Open launched a trial that allowed off-court coaching during matches for the first time. The other Grand Slams followed the next year. In 2025, World Tennis, the sport's world governing body, changed the rules, allowing it essentially everywhere.
The interplay between players and their coaches often generates some of the most dramatic viewing moments of a tennis match. So, the camera finds them — a lot.
"The coaches, I think, are getting a little bit more visibility," Zatarain said.
Their jobs have also changed in recent years, as teams have grown and coaching a top player has become a sophisticated operation. In the best and most serious environments, it's something like being a chief operating officer of a Formula 1 team, where the player is the car.
Enter the relationships with companies that seek to improve the health of people who may or may not compete in sports. There are only so many tennis players who care about what kind of strings a coach and player might prefer. But everybody sleeps. And a lot of people take energy supplements, including just about every player on tour.
"It's like a holistic approach," Fontang said, "with clear goals, a clear process and to something that you do consistently right as well in the process. This is how you bring consistency into the match."
Fontang played on the tour in the 1990s, which is now considered a prehistoric era in terms of recovery science. He did a little stretching and mobility work before and after he played. Occasionally, he might get attention from a tour trainer or physiotherapist. He certainly didn't have one on his team.
Ivan Lendl, a star of the 1980s, was the first major men's player known to focus on health and wellness. Martina Navratilova was the first woman.
They both won a lot. Other players noticed.
Now, everything is tracked. Blood gets tested to monitor training and recovery. Nearly everyone rides a stationary bike — high tension, low speed — after a match and quickly downs a protein recovery drink.
And therein lies the opportunity. What separates the Eight Sleeps and IM8s and Solincos of the world is that they have an actual use in the sport, compared with a random resort company that just uses a coach as a billboard. A couple of years ago, Fritz had Eight Sleep install a mattress pad in his hotel room in New York.
Nearly every player goes through a sophisticated recovery routine, but the common denominator is the most valuable recovery activity of all.
"Sleep is the first thing that is the most important," Dubrov said after a late match — a common occurrence at the U.S. Open. Everything else will get cut short so that Sabalenka can maximize the amount of time she can spend in bed, though quality can count as much as quantity.
The hot European summer was not great. There isn't much air conditioning in London homes.
"You can have like 10 hours of the sleep," Dubrov said. "But you're going to be kind of awake for most of it."
Russell said he was introduced to Eight Sleep by Fritz, who has long had sleep issues because he can spend a lot of time playing video games. As a teenager, he got in trouble with USTA coaches because he was often gaming until 4 a.m. It's healthier than clubbing, but still not great.
His team noticed improvements in his sleep data in recent years. Maybe it's his mattress pad. Maybe it's a placebo effect, which Russell calls "the most powerful drug there is."
And a clear branding opportunity, present even as Fritz lost Saturday in five sets to Argentina's Francisco Cerúndolo.
So, no matter who advances to the second week of this marquee tournament, expect plenty more sponsorship and caps that look like they could be plentiful at company retreats.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic .
Sports Business, Culture, Tennis, Women's Tennis
2026 The Athletic Media Company
