CEO: 'Huge Mistake' to Grab Tennis Pro's Hat Meant for Boy

UPDATE Sep 2, 2025 10:00 AM CDT

The chief executive of a Polish paving firm is copping to a "huge mistake" after a viral video showed him appearing to snatch a pro tennis player's hat away from a young boy at the US Open. "I know I did something that seemed like consciously collecting a memento from a child," Piotr Szczerek said in a statement, per the BBC, adding that he was "convinced" that player Kamil Majchrzak, a fellow Pole, was handing his hat to Szczerek, not the boy. "This wasn't my intention, but it doesn't change the fact that I hurt the boy and disappointed the fans." In a Facebook post, Szczerek further apologized for his "extremely poor judgment" and noted that he'd sent the hat to the boy directly. Majchrzak, meanwhile, posed for a photo with the boy, identified only as Brock, and gave him a cap just like the one he didn't get to keep, per Today.

Sep 1, 2025 1:00 AM CDT

A man caught on video allegedly grabbing a tennis player's hat from a young boy at the US Open has been identified as a millionaire Polish CEO. Piotr Szczerek can allegedly be seen on a now-viral video standing near the child in the stands after Polish tennis player Kamil Majchrzak won his match Thursday, and then grabbing the hat—which Majchrzak had been wearing, and may have autographed—as the tennis player tried to hand it to the boy. The boy can be seen protesting and visibly upset after the man puts the hat into his wife's bag, the New York Post reports. Majchrzak didn't realize what had happened until the video started making headlines, but over the weekend, the tennis player met with the boy, the BBC reports.

"Today after warm up, I had a nice meeting," Majchrzak captioned a social media post showing him with the boy and another child, to whom he gave some gifts. "Do you recognize [the hat]?" Majchrzak also spoke to the Post, and says Szczerek, the CEO of a paving company, sponsors Majchrzak's tennis federation in Poland. "Obviously it was some kind of confusion," he says of the apparent cap-snatching. "I'm sure the guy was also acting in the moment of heat, in the moment of emotions." He claims Szczerek also wants to apologize, and says he passed the boy's family's contact information along.