Tennis has a merch problem—and it’s bigger than one stolen design
An illustrator’s work appearing on Monte-Carlo Masters merchandise without permission points to a deeper issue: tennis’s fragmented retail system leaves no one clearly in charge.
When an illustrator sees her work show up on official tennis tournament merchandise without permission, it’s easy to treat it as a one-off—a bad actor, a sourcing mistake, an unfortunate oversight
But in tennis, it’s representative of a larger problem.
When Yana Boyko realized her illustration of tennis rackets had been printed on Monte-Carlo Masters merchandise without her consent, she did what most creators do today: she posted about it. The tweet quickly began to circulate, drawing attention to the design and raising questions about how it ended up on official tournament merch in the first place. The merchandise itself is branded as being sold by the Monte-Carlo Country Club, where the event takes place, but it’s unclear who actually produced it.
