{"id":108357,"date":"2025-08-31T07:59:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T07:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/108357\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T07:59:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T07:59:27","slug":"us-open-fan-who-snatched-souvenir-from-young-boy-identified-as-millionaire-ceo-piotr-szczerek-boss-of-drogbruk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/108357\/","title":{"rendered":"US Open fan who snatched souvenir from young boy identified as millionaire CEO Piotr Szczerek, boss of DrogBruk"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tennis<\/a> fan who snatched a US Open<\/a> player\u2019s hat from the grasp of a young child has been identified as Polish millionaire CEO Piotr Szczerek.<\/p>\n

Szczerek, who heads up paving contractor company DrogBruk, has been reported as the man who was caught on Thursday night\u2019s broadcast (local time) taking Polish tennis star Kamil Majchrzak\u2019s match-worn hat<\/a> when he was trying to hand it to an eager boy.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Grown man snatches cap from young boy.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today \"Download<\/a><\/p>\n

Majchrzak had just won the match of his life against No.9 seed Karen Khachanov, coming back from two sets down to pull off the extraordinary 2-6, 6-7 (7-4), 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) victory.<\/p>\n

After the match, the young boy was waiting patiently for an autograph on his giant tennis ball when Majchrzak generously offered the cap on his head instead.<\/p>\n

But it was snatched away by the successful businessman, who was then seen tucking the hat into his wife\u2019s bag as the heartbroken youngster protested.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d the boy yelled towards the man as he appeared to laugh.<\/p>\n

He pleaded with the adults to give him the cap, but they just carried on before giving the boy a pen.<\/p>\n

The distasteful act of greed sparked viral fury from the tennis world and wider community.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe cap was snatched out of the boy\u2019s grasp. Credit: X<\/p>\n

Szczerek has since deactivated his social media accounts.<\/p>\n

Polish job search site Gowork.pl was quickly flooded with people blasting the prominent CEO, who was described in no uncertain terms as a \u201ccommon thief\u201d, \u201csack of garbage\u201d, \u201cprimitive scammer\u201d, and \u201cshameful jerk\u201d by various different people.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly an ordinary idiot and a jerk could snatch a hat from a child\u2019s hands,\u201d someone else said.<\/p>\n

DrogBruk was co-founded by Szczerek and his wife in 1999, and has been lauded by Polish publications as a leader in the industry.<\/p>\n

The disheartening incident eventually had a happy ending though, with Majchrzak making a successful public plea to track the boy down and shower him with gifts, including a signed cap.<\/p>\n

With \u201cthe power of the internet\u201d, it took him just an hour to find the youngster.<\/p>\n

Majchrzak posted a video on Sunday morning (AEST) in which he is seen reuniting with the young fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday after warm up I had a nice meeting. Do you recognise?\u201d he wrote, alongside a cap emoji.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe boy eventually got more than he bargained for in the first place, in what was a nice gesture. Credit: Instagram<\/p>\n

He then posed for a photo with the boy, whose name is Brock, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHell world, together with Brock. We wish you a great day,\u201d Majchrzak added.<\/p>\n

While the story had a happy ending for the young boy, the adult fan was slammed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a terrible man, to snatch it right out of a child\u2019s hand like that,\u201d one fan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was so rude, how can someone do this to a little boy,\u201d another said.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the world No.76, his US Open campaign came to an end just five hours after posting of his reunion with the child, conceding he had to retire due to injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi everyone, a quick update: I have teared (sic) intercostal muscle and I was forced to retire today,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying at US Open requires the best from us tennis players, and today I just haven\u2019t been able to compete. I tried but the pain was too big.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks for all your support through all the days and all the kind messages.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Alex de Minaur storms into US Open final 16 as only Aussie remaining<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Tennis world slams US Open fan for \u2018shameful\u2019 act<\/p>\n

5 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The tennis fan who snatched a US Open player\u2019s hat from the grasp of a young child has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,588,85,747,1751],"class_list":{"0":"post-108357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sport","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-us-open"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}