Anti-American Reporter Seemingly Disappears From Australian Open After Justified Criticism: A Timeline

Less tennis, more politics and anti-American rhetoric. That is the approach one credentialed reporter at the Australian Open has taken by bombarding several American players with loaded questions in an attempt to confirm his personal political beliefs.

The reporter is alleged to be Owen Lewis, a freelancer, who shared on Bluesky on January 14 that he was in Melbourne covering the year's first Grand Slam "for a few outlets," specifically mentioning The Athletic, the subscription-based sports department of The New York Times.

Lewis received bylines for six stories published by The Athletic between January 15 and January 22. In the midst of publishing non-political, mostly general recap stories of the previous day's action, he was allegedly trying to bait American players into bashing the United States and President Donald Trump from a foreign country.

American Amanda Anisimova was among the first U.S. players to be asked a loaded question by the press in Australia. (Photo by Robert Prange/Getty Images)

OutKick has reached out multiple times to Lewis, staffers at both The Athletic and New York Times, as well as media services at the Australian Open, looking to confirm that it is indeed him asking the questions, if Lewis is representing The Athletic at the tournament, and whether he was directed to ask these politically-focused questions to American players while in Australia.

We have also asked the same contacts whether he is still on-site covering the tournament, because he has seemingly disappeared, as evidenced by the fact that he hasn't had a story published in days and hasn't been heard spewing liberal media word vomit inside the press center.

This brings us to our timeline of events, which paints an interesting picture of the situation, but also the cowardice of Lewis and The Athletic by remaining completely silent.

January 21

The reported alleged to be Lewis asks American Coco Gauff to share how she feels representing the United States one year into President Trump's second administration. Gauff calls for more peace in the country while saying, "it's hard being a black woman in this country."

Lewis has one story co-published at The Athletic recapping the day's results.

Coco Gauff takes questions at the 2026 Australian Open. (Photo by Robert Prange/Getty Images)

January 22

Lewis is alleged to be the reporter who asks Americans Taylor Fritz, Amanda Anisimova, Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, and Ethan Quinn a similar version of the same question: how does it feel playing under the U.S. flag one year into President Trump's second stint in the White House?

Anisimova embarrasses him with her answer, noting she's proud to represent the U.S., while the other players avoid taking the bait with non-controversial answers. Quinn simply answers the question with, "No comment on that." Americans Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe, and Ben Shelton were not posed similar questions during their media availability that same day.

Lewis publishes his most-recent story at The Athletic, another co-written recap of the tournament's results. Following publication and Lewis' alleged questions making waves on social media later in the day, given the extreme time change, OutKick reaches out to multiple contacts, and Lewis himself, only to hear nothing back.

OutKick publishes a story about the situation and the clear-cut liberal agenda in the line of questioning later that day, The Athletic's comment section on Lewis' last published story becomes filled with questions about the publication's potential motive, and social media explodes with reactions to the line of questioning.

January 23-25

Americans Learnier Tien, Iva Jovic, Gauff, Paul, Fritz, Shelton, Anisimova, Keys, and Pegula all have formal press conferences in the media center after advancing in the tournament and are not asked politically-focused questions. Paul also takes questions from the media after his fourth-round loss to Carlos Alcaraz, and reporters in the room stuck to tennis.

At the time of publishing this story, OutKick has not heard back from a single contact at The Times, The Athletic, the Australian Open, or Lewis himself. Lewis has not been active on Bluesky since January 21, the day before his most-recent and presumed last post from The Athletic from the Australian Open was published.

It appears that what we have here is a very simple, and these days, expected scenario with a ‘sports reporter' not interested in covering sports at all, but instead only looking to sports figures to bash the country they represent because of their own anti-American, anti-Donald Trump beliefs.

There are no limits to this, either. Not even a flight to the other side of the world to cover a Grand Slam will slow some of these people down.