The 2025 U.S. Open tennis championship in Flushing, New York, has already served up plenty of controversial, often bizarre incidents that have little to do with the competition on the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center’s hardcourts â and there are still five full days to go.
The 15-day annual event, one of pro tennis’s four “Grand Slam” tournaments, has seen an allegedly racist outburst in which Latvian player Jelena Ostapenko berated American Taylor Townsend after their second-round match; a player’s ex-boyfriend reportedly stalking her during a match; and a photographer stepping on the court during play, inciting a lengthy tantrum from Russian Daniil Medvedev.
‘Hat Snatch’ Incident Lowlight of Tournament
But perhaps the most infamous incident occurred came on August 28, after Polish player Kamil Majchrzak scored what was undoubtedly the most important win of his career, eliminating the tournament’s No. 9 seed, Russia’s Karen Khachanov in five closely contested sets.
After the match, a jubilant Majchrzak went to the stands where he took the cap off of his head and handed it to a young boy, later identified only by the name “Brock,” and who appeared to be about eight years old.
But as Brock reached to accept the cap, an adult man in a dark blue polo shirt snatched the hat out of the boy’s hands, and would not give it back despite the child’s tearful pleas to return it.
The incident was captured on a video that quickly went viral.
Man Who Grabbed Hat Quickly Outed
But nothing is private on the internet and when online armchair detectives discovered the hat-snatcher’s identity, it only made matters worse.
The man was identified â an identification quickly confirmed â as Piotr Szczerek, who just happens to be a multimillionaire business tycoon from Poland who is CEO of the asphalt-making firm Drogbruk.
Szczerek lives in what the Economic Times described as a “luxury villa” in an exclusive Polish “village of millionaires” with “a private lake, a tennis court, and a gated entrance with manicured grounds.”
The online reaction to Szczerek’s seemingly heartless action was ruthless and swift, with tennis fans on social media quickly declaring him âthe most hated man on the internet.â
Millionaire CEO Issues Statement
On Monday, the millionaire pavement boss finally broke his silence posting an apology to the young boy on his own social media accounts, and describing the harrowing online thrashing he received as “a lesson in humility.”
The business tycoon said that he made a “grave mistake” because he was under the erroneous belief that Majchrzak was handing the cap to him, to pass on to Szczerek’s two sons who had âearlier asked for autographs.â
âThat mistaken belief made me reach out instinctively. Today I know I did something that looked like deliberately taking a souvenir from a child,â he wrote. âThat was not my intention, but it does not change the fact that I hurt the boy and disappointed the fans,” Szczerek wrote. âThe cap has been handed to the boy, and I have apologized to the family. I hope this has at least partially repaired the damage done.â
Majchrzak himself asked that mercy be extended to the CEO, saying that Szczerek is a leading sponsor of Poland’s tennis federation. The hat-snatch was simply the result of “some kind of confusion.”
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