The US Open stands out as a unique experience. For British fans accustomed to Wimbledon’s serene atmosphere, a visit to Flushing Meadows might feel overwhelming.

The Billie Jean King National Tennis Center buzzes with energy and vibrates with noise. Even in the midst of matches, attendees roam around, grabbing hot dogs and sipping on the ever-present Honey Deuce cocktail.

While attendees at the All England Club might nod off as the evening approaches, in New York, the excitement ramps up at this time. As night falls and the evening session gets underway, the energy intensifies with celebrities and influencers making appearances.

This year’s tournament is set to be the most eccentric yet as organizers intensify their efforts to captivate the TikTok generation, but could this alienate dedicated tennis enthusiasts?

This year’s opening act is the mixed doubles, a million-dollar extravaganza taking place the week before the singles games. Entry is based on singles rankings, excluding many doubles specialists, with matches played in a format of first to four games per set.

“It just sounds like an exhibition,” stated Henry Patten, Britain’s former Wimbledon and Australian Open doubles champion, in response to the event’s launch. “It’s a huge disrespect to those who have won before.”

There were murmurs from fans, too, but discontent was drowned out by excitement once the spectacular field was unveiled. Eight men and six women from the world’s top 10 will compete.

Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu has, of course, been the most-talked about partnership and one suspects there has been an element of stage management by the US Open in assembling the pairings.

The speculation over whether this was a sign of a romance will not have taken the US Open by surprise — it is all grist to their mill of engagement.

Speaking of partners, there will be another event taking place during Fan Week, a stunt seen by many as a step too far — the filming of a reality TV dating show.

Game, Set, Matchmaker will see Ilana Sedaka — a former national ice skating champion, now a Pilates instructor and ‘tennis-savvy bachelorette’ — looking for love around the grounds.

The ‘fun, flirty and personal’ show — the 24-year-old’s words there — will be filmed in the week before the singles begins and broadcast on YouTube during the tournament. The last episode will air on the Saturday of finals weekend, the single lady and the ladies’ singles.

This was announced on Instagram where the most-liked comment reads: ‘This is so disrespectful.’

But the US Open do not care about hand-wringing from older fans. They are not afraid of looking silly, they are out to get the Love Island generation who will stumble across the show and begin to see tennis, and the US Open, as sexy, glamorous and aspirational.

Aspirational it certainly is, in that it is most definitely not cheap. Wimbledon take pride in the fact that a fan can pay £30 for a ground pass and bring in their own food and alcohol. Not so at Flushed-with-cash Meadows.

Ground passes are a minimum of $100 and, while the most expensive ticket at Wimbledon is £315, in New York the best seats are thousands of dollars. Then there is the $23 (plus tip) Honey Deuce Cocktail, of which 556,000 were sold last year, a $12.8m windfall which helped the Open this week unveil the richest purse in tennis history — $90m in total, with $5m apiece for the singles champions.

In keeping with this push towards high-end status, the Open has become one of the holy of holies for the cult of celebrity. A-listers flock to exclusive courtside seats or sponsor suites. It is the place to be seen, particularly as cameras pan to celebrities and show them on the big screen.

It began with Serena Williams and her celeb fans, a phenomenon which peaked at the 2022 US Open which the 23-time Grand Slam champion announced would be her last. Tiger Woods, Zendaya, Spike Lee and Bella and Gigi Hadid arrived to see the last dance.

The departure of Williams could have spelled an end to the craze, but in fact it was the beginning. The tournament claimed a 60 per cent rise in celebrity attendance in 2023 and that has continued to grow. The celebrities provide an endless stream of content to be clipped and spoon-fed to the Instagram and TikTok generation.

It also feeds the voyeurism of our culture — with matches lasting for several hours and plenty of breaks in the action, we can spy on celebrities. In 2023, the internet pored over footage of Hollywood heart-throb Timothee Chalamet and reality star Kylie Jenner for clues to their relationship.

Then there are the influencers. A section of seats on Arthur Ashe are reserved, often for players’ family and friends but also for influencers, who leap up during every changeover to pose grotesquely for pictures.

Many are tapping into Tenniscore, the latest fashion trend in which traditional tennis outfits are repurposed for everyday wear. The two queens of the tennis influencers are Paige Lorenze and Morgan Riddle, girlfriends of Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz respectively. These two have become more famous than their partners — Paul cheerfully said on a recent podcast that Lorenze is recognised more often than him.

Riddle in particular has, through her blend of fashion and gentle explainers of tennis, mastered the art of engaging young fans. For the last three years, Wimbledon has partnered with her to produce a fashion series.

Speaking of Wimbledon, where does all this leave the old place? There is a real fear that they are being left behind.

Until the expansion on to Wimbledon Park Golf Club is completed, the All England Club will continue to be too small to compete with their rivals.

While every other Slam has brought qualifying in-house and built that week into a festival of tennis, Wimbledon are stuck hosting their event in Roehampton.

Bosses at SW19 will be looking on in envy as the US Open’s three-week party begins this month. But do not expect a Wimbledon dating show any time soon.