From Curry to Hamilton, celebrity star power on display at US Open final

NEW YORK — The stars of sport, fashion and the arts were out in force to watch the US Open final between Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula on Saturday night. Olympic gold medalists Steph Curry and Noah Lyles, F1 star Lewis Hamilton, writer and actress Tina Fey were just some of the A-List stars in the seats on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

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With all eyes on them, Sabalenka and Pegula put on a hard-nosed display of baseline tennis that saw the result stay in the balance until the final point. In the end, World No.2 Sabalenka kept her cool under relentless pressure form Pegula to win her first US Open and third major title overall, winning 7-5, 7-5. The 26-year-old is the first woman since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to sweep the hard-court Slams in a single season.

“On the changeover I’m always looking up and I see the celebrities,” Pegula said after the match. “It’s kind of hard not to because literally right in front of us. I was, like, wow, there’s definitely a lot of people here. I thought that was pretty cool and pretty amazing that I got to play in front of them.”

Curry and his wife Ayesha arrived early to get settled in their seats for the big show. After the match, Pegula revealed she got a pep talk from the Golden State Warriors point guard, who she met at the Olympics last month.

“Funny story, my husband, his iPhone name is Steph Curry because he loves Steph Curry,” Pegula said. “If you connect to bluetooth or send him something or AirDrop, it’s ‘Steph Curry’s iPhone’. So I kind of left early and he texted me and he was so excited, he didn’t want to say anything. I was like, Please tell me you did not tell him about the iPhone thing. He’s like, Oh, yeah, I did. I thought that was really cute.

“He was like, ‘No, he loved it’. I was like, ‘Did he? Or did he really think you were kind of crazy?’ I guess he thought it was pretty funny.”

More celebrity spotting around Arthur Ashe stadium on a fantastic night for women’s tennis:

Former Saturday Night Live and “Mean Girls” writer Fey was happy to join in the festivities as she sat next to her husband, composer Jeff Richmond.  

Rapper Flava Flav is one of the biggest and most visible supporters of women’s sports, a fact cemented this summer with his sponsorship of the USA Women’s Water Polo team.

Lyles and Hamilton exchanged notes as they sat alongside Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, who was honored by the USTA on Friday with a special paver on the Avenue of Aces for her long-time support of the USTA Foundation, the USTA’s philanthropic arm.

It’s not Championship Weekend without the one and only Billie Jean King.

Does the “B” stand for “Buffalo”? Probably not. Actor and director John Krasinski, who is from Boston, brought his daughter to the match. 

Please send one Honey Deuce and one Marg-Aryna to actors Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy. 

Hi Barbie! Issa Rae of HBO’s “Insecure” shows why you should absolutely wear white after Labor Day. 

One of the best to ever do it: Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin was looking as tense as the action on court.