Carlos Alcaraz vs Jannik Sinner: Trump to watch US Open final from Rolex suite

US President Donald Trump will watch the US Open men’s final from Rolex’s suite in Arthur Ashe Stadium, a person with knowledge of the details said on Saturday.

Trump’s first appearance at the Grand Slam tennis tournament in New York since 2015 will be on Sunday as a guest of the Swiss watchmaker, the person said on condition of anonymity because those plans were not publicly revealed.

If there is any negative reaction to Trump’s presence, it won’t be shown on ABC’s telecast of the match between No. 1 Jannik Sinner and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz. That’s a standard US Tennis Association policy.

“We regularly ask our broadcasters to refrain from showcasing off-court disruptions,” the organisation said in a statement.

Trump frequently attended the US Open in the years before that when he lived in New York and before he launched his political career. He now primarily lives at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, when he’s not in Washington.

Accepting use of Rolex’s suite is noteworthy since it comes weeks after the Trump administration imposed a whopping 39 per cent tariff on Swiss products. That’s over 2 ½ times higher than the one on European Union goods exported to the US, and nearly four times higher than on British exports to the US — which has raised questions about Switzerland’s ability to compete with the 27-member bloc that it neighbours.

It’s the latest high-profile sporting event for Trump after the Super Bowl in New Orleans, the Daytona 500 in Florida, as well as UFC fights in Miami and Newark, New Jersey, the NCAA wrestling championships in Philadelphia and the FIFA Club World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The Trump Organization once controlled a suite at the US Open, which was adjacent to the television broadcasting booth in Arthur Ashe Stadium, but suspended it in 2017, during the first year of Trump’s first term.

Despite Trump’s past association with the tournament, having a sitting president at the US Open is unusual. It hasn’t happened since Bill Clinton attended in 2000. Former president Barack Obama and wife, Michelle, attended the opening night in 2023.