American tennis pros at the Australian Open were not impressed when a leftist reporter tried to hijack their press conferences with anti-Trump gotcha questions.
Far from the courts where these athletes are battling for glory, Owen Lewis—a Canadian freelancer writing for outlets like The New York Times’ The Athletic—turned post-match Q&As into his personal soapbox, probing players on their feelings about representing the U.S. under President Trump’s second term.
But the stars weren’t buying into the narrative of “suffering” and “tensions” peddled by Lewis, opting instead to keep the focus on unity, and actual tennis.
American tennis stars at the Australian Open all visibly uncomfortable after a liberal sports reporter started asking them questions about Trump & the U.S.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 22, 2026
Taylor Fritz, Amanda Anisimova, Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula, and Coco Gauff were all asked a similar question.
This clown… pic.twitter.com/LsjJwVCU5w
Lewis has been grilling every U.S. player in a clear attempt to elicit criticism of Trump-era policies like border security and cracking down on illegal immigration—issues the left loves to frame as “oppressive” while ignoring the real threats to American sovereignty.
He asked Amanda Anisimova “I’ve been asking a lot of the American players just how it feels to play under the American flag right now and I’m curious how you feel?”
She fired back without hesitation: “Yeah I mean I was born in America so always proud to represent my country and yeah a lot of us are doing really well and it’s great to see a lot of great athletes on women’s side on men’s sides so yeah I feel like we’re all doing a great job representing ourselves.”
Undeterred, Lewis pressed: “Sorry do you mind if just to clarify a little I mean sort of in the context at the last year everything that’s been happening in US does it complicate that feeling at all?”
Anisimova shut it down cold, responding bluntly “I don’t think that’s relevant.”
Why are tennis players being dragged into U.S. politics at an international sporting event?
— MaeveKnows (@maeveknows) January 22, 2026
Jessica Pegula faced a similar ambush. Lewis opened with: “This is a pretty sensitive subject, but the U.S. is a year into the second Trump administration now and a lot of people are suffering and I’m wondering how you’re feeling about things back home personally and specifically what the mood is like in Florida.”
Pegula refused to take the bait, responding “Yeah that’s a tough question you know I don’t like to kind of dabble too much into politics just because it’s not the space that I really want to say that much on but yeah I hope everybody can kind of at some point come together and work together as far as situations or whether it’s political or not political in our country.”
She even elaborated on the media’s role in stoking division: “I feel like we have a big country where there’s a lot of media tension on us too that’s tough because things definitely make their way around the world and even me being in Australia you hear about all these things going on back home. But I just hope you know that we can come together at some point and actually get accomplished in things that we want to see accomplished not be so divisive I guess.”
When Lewis doubled down—“When you’ve been in Florida have you noticed kind of a shift in the mood at all?”—Pegula dismissed the doom-mongering: “Florida to me at least where I live has been fine.”
All our reactions. pic.twitter.com/uevJb5bqek
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 22, 2026
Taylor Fritz, visibly irritated, called out the trap. Lewis asked: “Hi Taylor, congrats on the win you know I’m asking all the American players this and there’s a lot happening back home in the U.S., it kind of has been for a lot last year and just kinda wondering how you’re feeling about all that.”
Fritz replied: “I mean not sure what were like specifically talking about but there is there is a lot going on in the U.S., and I don’t know I feel like whatever I say here’s gonna get put into a headline and it’s gonna get taken out of context so I’d really rather not do something that’s going to cause a big distraction for me in the middle of tournament.”
This is inappropriate and unprofessional.
— ??BlueBird?? (@QT9277) January 22, 2026
Even Madison Keys pushed back against Lewis’ loaded query: “This is a pretty sensitive subject, but you know a year into the second Trump administration tensions in the U.S are pretty ridiculously high and I’m just wondering how do you feel personally about what the Trump administration has been doing and how has it felt to you when you’ve spent time in the US.”
Keys said: “I think my stance has been pretty obvious it’s pretty obvious where I stand and I am hopeful that we as a country can come together.”
You can't even watch sports without Trump derangement syndrome getting in the way. Especially internationally, they talk about him more than the MSM
— Niko (@nickdagreek) January 22, 2026
Coco Gauff, who has been vocal in the past, expressed exhaustion, responding “I mean I think it’s already stated my opinions in the past on how I feel about it.”
Instead of celebrating these athletes’ achievements, Lewis tried to drag them into a partisan circus, proving once again that leftist journalists, even sports reporters, can’t suppress their TDS for a second.
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