After two long years of waiting, fans were elated to return to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for the US Open. But as with almost everything else, the COVID-19 pandemic has left an imprint on tennis, too.
From a reckoning over mental health in professional sports and a migration towards touchless technology in the stadium to a changing of the talent guard — both the way fans enjoy tennis and the players they’re watching have changed.
French President Emmanuel Macron hailed Birkin as a “complete artist,” noting that her soft voice went hand-in-hand with her “ardent” activism. Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak called Birkin “the most French British person" and “the emblem for a whole epoch who never went out of fashion."
