Influencer & Creator of ‘Christian’s Court’ Christian Basnigh Talks Influencer Boom at US Open

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

**Molly Smith** (0:07)
We've got a really special next guest to talk to you guys about something very topical at this year's US. Open. And a lot of that has to do with the frustration around influencers. You know, Tim, we talk about this just about every day.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:20)
Well, I think, yeah, unfortunately, you have just poisoned my Instagram feed because you've been sending me all these videos of influencers at the US. Open. But they're influencers, not necessarily the type of influencer that Christian is. The criticism of influencers is that they're coming to the US. Open to be seen and not to watch the tennis, to be seen and to post.

**Molly Smith** (0:40)
Right. And to be clear, I'm sending you the clips of people who we will not have as guests.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:46)
That is true.

**Molly Smith** (0:46)
Because I had to make sure that we did some proper searching here. But I've been following Christian for a long time on social media. He is the creator of the popular social media channel, Christian's Court, all tennis, all year round. And he's been here basically from sun up to sun down every single day at this year's US Open. Christian Basnigh, welcome to the show.

**Christian Basnigh** (1:06)
Thank you for having me. Nice to be here. Thank you, Molly and Tim.

**Molly Smith** (1:09)
We're so happy to have you. So, Christian, like I said, you are not one of those influencers. You're more one of us, right?

**Christian Basnigh** (1:16)
You're like in here with the media.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:16)
I would say you're an independent tennis journalist.

**Christian Basnigh** (1:19)
I like that. I like that. Let's go with that.

**Molly Smith** (1:21)
So, tell us about the kind of independent tennis journalism that you are creating here.

**Christian Basnigh** (1:26)
Yeah. So, here specifically for the US Open, I'm credentialed under my own platform, Christian's Court, and it's through their creator credential, media accreditation. But mainly, it's just multimedia journalism. I do a lot of my stuff on YouTube. That's where I first started off. So, I literally just uploaded a day, what was it, four recap video just now. And then I also do some social media stuff as far as Instagram. Like updates, many recaps as far as that's concerned. So, it widely ranges, but a lot of it is social media based.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:58)
I'm just doing some quick math in my head here. You've been doing this since 2012 You graduated from college in 2024 Yes. Let's say you were 10 years old roughly when you uploaded your first tennis YouTube video.

**Christian Basnigh** (2:09)
Yes.

**Tim Stenovec** (2:09)
Okay. So, you've been doing this for basically your whole life. You have built an amazing relationship and incredible rapport with some really notable American players, Ben Shelton among them. I think a lot of people know you as sort of a guy who has some funny back and forth. I've certainly seen those right now.
Talk a little bit about following him, following his career, what you see in terms of his outlook for this year and for beyond.

**Christian Basnigh** (2:33)
Yes. So, Ben has kind of had a rapid rise in a sense. He kind of burst onto the scene. I remember when I came here in 2022 and he was just rising, and he played on one of those outside courts. So, it's crazy to think just four years later that he's headlining Arthur Ashe Stadium back to back days. But I think he's emerged into the face of American tennis, or at least one of the faces of American tennis.
For me personally, I think he's a really strong title contender to go all the way at this US Open. I actually predicted him to win the title. But there's been a lot of talks about, oh, who will break the American drought? He's of course been in that conversation, but I find it interesting how yesterday he was kind of asked about that in his press conference, and he mentioned, he's like, I feel like every time like people talk about is only in the press, like I'm not really thinking about it too much. So I think he does have a good head under his shoulders. I think he has a great game, a great personality. He has the whole package. So we'll see if he can bring it all together here for this tournament to see if he can, I guess, break that drought.

**Tim Stenovec** (3:34)
The drought you're referring to is 2003 Yes, Andy Roddick won the US Open. It was the only slam that he won, but he was the last American man to win the US Open.