Amanda Anisimova and Madison Keys Kick Off US Open with Lalo

Ahead of the U.S. Open, American tennis stars Amanda Anisimova and Madison Keys joined Lalo Tequila and IMG for a celebratory cocktail party to kick off the tournament.

Through Sept. 7, Lalo is popping up at The Thompson Central Park with a clubhouse where matches will be screened and specialty Lalo cocktails will be on offer. The kick-off party featured custom cocktails for the two players: a passion fruit margarita for Anisimova and a spicy margarita for Keys.

“I’m super excited. It’s my favorite tournament,” Anisimova said of getting ready for the Open. The 2025 Wimbledon finalist had been spending the week in town training in the mornings and said she was feeling ready to get started. 

“I’ve been training a lot. It’s a super-important tournament for me, so I’m just trying to do everything,” she said.

Aside from it being a home tournament, the energy of the city is what makes the Open her favorite. 

“It’s always the most exciting one and I just find it very fun compared to all the other tournaments. Even though I’m a player, I feel like I’m part of the environment of the chaos and I thrive on the pressure and all the tension,” she said.

In her limited spare time while in town, she likes to catch up with friends and go out for dinner.

“I always see my friends; I don’t get to see them often. Then obviously shopping, and then just dinners and walking around the city,” she said. “I normally am not much of a walker, but I love walking around here.”

Keys, the 2025 Australian Open winner, had arrived on Monday and during her downtime had gone out for dinner and done an escape room with her friends.

“We crushed it,” she said.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t had a ton of time to see a lot of New York, but I know the 25 blocks around Midtown,” she added. 

The week had been busy with press commitments, but once the tournament officially was underway her schedule would turn entirely to tennis. 

“New York to me is the rowdiest, loudest, biggest, and it’s an event,” she said of the tournament. “Everything else is very — Wimbledon is very classy and ‘tennis’ and all that, but here it’s like you get all the celebrities, the athletes. You can just tell it’s the U.S. Open.”