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As tennis fever descends on New York, superfans are skipping the official merch tent in favor of something far more personal — and less expensive: homemade US Open-inspired clothes and artwork.
From hand-painted tributes to tennis legends to beaded racket designs and maximalist posters packed with Queens references, fans and artists are putting their own spin on the annual tournament — and posting their creations online for fellow tennis obsessives to admire — and buy.
The US Open, one of tennis’ four Grand Slam tournaments alongside the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon, returns to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens this week.
While qualifying and other events began during the tournament’s opening week, the main singles draw kicked off Aug. 30, with the women’s final set for Sept. 12 and the men’s final Sept. 13.
However, for crafty tennis fans like Hoboken sisters Amanda Mohre, 28, and Emily Mohre, 26, the tournament started long before the first serve — with a trip to the craft store.
When a friend’s mom asked the duo, who run the handmade clothing brand The Beaded Tee, to create a tennis-inspired tank that she could wear to the US Open, they jumped at the opportunity.
“They wanted something special to wear for the occasion, so we created the tennis racket and ball design,” Emily told The Post.
The sisters sketched out the design, experimented with colors and then hand-beaded the rackets and tennis balls onto the shirt — a process that takes roughly four to six hours per tee.
The result was a decidedly more personal alternative to the standard tournament souvenir — which can run spectators anywhere from $15 for small souvenirs to $600 for high-end designer pieces.
“I loved that it represented something they both enjoy and their experience of going to the tournament together,” Emily said.
“That’s really what we love most about custom pieces, there’s usually a personal story behind them.”
Since posting about their creation online, the Mohres have sold about five of the tennis shirts so far, for $75 a pop, limited by the fact that each one is entirely handmade.
For the US Open, the sisters are dreaming up more tennis-themed designs, including beaded tennis balls and bubble-letter “US Open” shirts.
“We love the energy around the U.S. Open and the excitement that surrounds it,” Emily explained.
“It’s such a fun New York tradition, and we love how the experience is about more than just the tennis, with the energy, atmosphere, and of course, all the fun outfits people wear.”
The sisters’ larger business was born from that same desire to make clothing feel less mass-produced and more personal.
Emily initially started beading for fun, and after the sisters moved to Hoboken together, they turned the hobby into a business in 2025.
“We hadn’t really seen anything like it being sold, and we loved the idea of creating clothing that felt really personal and one-of-a-kind,” Amanda said.
Now, The Beaded Tee makes custom pieces inspired by everything from hobbies and favorite destinations to food, sports and special events.
“We always love creating around events and moments that people are excited about,” Amanda explained. “We had so much fun creating Knicks pieces for the NBA Finals, which people loved, so we’re excited to bring that same energy to the U.S. Open.”
The sisters are currently booked up with orders, as their Instagram account has become a showcase for their latest designs.
Brooklyn artist Olivia Ellis took a more painterly approach to her love for tennis.
For last year’s US Open, the 30-year-old spent two days hand-painting portraits of Venus and Serena Williams onto a denim top and matching skort to show off her designs.
A self-proclaimed tennis superfan, Ellis is selective about who she hand-paints clothing for, primarily creating them for herself.
However, the Brooklynite sells $25 “museum-quality posters” featuring hand-drawn illustrations of tennis stars such as Carlos Alcaraz and Naomi Osaka.
For those vying to get one of her creations on a shirt, a US Open piece of merch that is much cheaper than what’s being sold at Arthur Ashe Stadium, she also sells tennis-themed prints and digital downloads for $8 each through her website and Etsy shop, which she has run since 2023.
“Usually I find a reference photo I like of the player I want to draw and take inspiration from the colors in the photo…. Whether it’s the color of their outfit, or the environment around them, I try to enhance the colors in my own artwork to a heightened version,” Ellis told The Post.
“I’m all about movement, texture, and vibrant colors. My process is very additive, so I love layering different mediums like markers and paint. My favorite part has to be adding the finishing touches. It scratches my brain to spot something that could be improved and add it in during the final moments of working on a piece.”
Ellis was shy about revealing how many requests she has received for her tennis-inspired work, because for the 30-year-old, her handmade creations are less about making a profit and more about paying tribute to her favorite sport.
“…being such a huge tennis fan, the US Open feels like Christmas,” she said. “The excitement in New York this time of year has the whole city buzzing.”
Toronto illustrator and graphic designer Fiorella Granda, 25, took the DIY approach one step further: She designed her own unofficial US Open poster.
The project was part fan art, part professional “please notice me” gambit: Granda was hoping to catch the US Open’s attention and land a potential collaboration.
In a TikTok video featuring the poster, Granda tagged the US Open as part of her “Designing for Brands Until They Notice Me” series and encouraged her followers to tag the tournament and share her work.
They did — but the US Open never got back to her. The poster nevertheless caught the attention of tennis fans online.
Granda asked her 34.5,000 Instagram followers what they associate with the tournament, then packed their answers into a maximalist illustration featuring Arthur Ashe Stadium, the Queens skyline, Coco Gauff, Serena Williams, Billie Jean King, the famous Queens globe and — naturally — the Honey Deuce.
“I started drawing the Arthur Ashe Stadium and its iconic blue-and-green court, which is the heart of the Open,” Granda told The Post.
The poster’s Honey Deuce reference is particularly playful: Granda transformed the cocktail’s melon garnish, which resembles tennis balls, into tiny characters. She also drew an apple-shaped tennis ball as a wink to New York’s “Big Apple.”
And then there were the legends.
Granda included Serena Williams as a 17-year-old winning her first US Open and Coco Gauff on the stadium’s big screen. She also added Billie Jean King’s famous line, “Pressure is a privilege.”
The choice was intentional. Granda is passionate about women’s sports and wanted the poster to celebrate the women who have helped shape tennis.
“I’m trying to make the sports world more inclusive through design,” she said.
“Although the US Open didn’t respond to me, it meant a lot to me to be noticed and appreciated by tennis fans and women’s sports fans,” Granda added.
Granda hasn’t officially put the poster up for sale, but she’s considering turning some of its most playful elements, including the apple-shaped tennis balls, into stickers.
Granda has no shortage of sports inspiration. She grew up playing basketball, was a varsity athlete in college and has previously worked with the Toronto Open and WNBA on sticker designs. She eventually left her full-time job at an architecture firm to pursue art.
The Peru-born illustrator’s US Open poster took inspiration from vintage tournament artwork, particularly its playful typography and retro aesthetic. She created the piece digitally in Adobe Illustrator, sketching the elements before adding color.
For Granda, the appeal of making fan art is ultimately about merging two things she’s loved for years: sports and creativity.
“When I spend a lot of time making a poster and people notice it, it’s really special and meaningful to me,” she said.
“Women’s sports are so important to me, so it meant a lot to use my artwork to celebrate icons like Billie Jean King, Serena Williams and Coco Gauff.”
