Cannabis Haze Disrupts US Open Match for Aryna Sabalenka
Aryna Sabalenka wrinkles her nose, steps back from the baseline and looks up at the chair.
The world No. 1 is leading 3-0 in the opening set on Louis Armstrong Stadium, cruising against Kamilla Rakhimova in their US Open third-round match, when the match suddenly stops being about serves and returns and becomes about smell.
“Someone is smoking weed,” she tells chair umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore, gesturing toward the stands. “Would you mind to… because it’s so strong.”
The umpire immediately radios officials and mimics a smoking gesture toward the staff. A few members of the US Open team begin working the aisles, scanning the crowd to find the source of the odour. Sabalenka waits, racket in hand, eyes narrowed but expression controlled.
It lasts only a moment. The interruption is brief. But it underlines a problem that just won’t go away in Flushing Meadows.
Cannabis haze lingers over New York major
The Billie Jean King National Tennis Center sits hard up against Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, where recreational cannabis is legal for adults 21 and over in New York. The park has become a relaxed, smoky backdrop to the year’s final major.
Inside the gates, though, the rules are clear: the US Open is a smoke-free event. No cigarettes. No vapes. No joints. Yet the smell drifts in from the park and pools around certain courts, turning into an unwanted extra opponent for some players.
British player Katie Boulter had already raised the issue earlier in the tournament, singling out the practice area and Court 17.
“I have experienced it,” Boulter said. “You got down to the practice courts and down in the park courts, you do smell it a lot. I’m not a huge fan of it. I know a lot of players have complained on specific courts. I’ve played on (Court 17) before and I did smell it during my match. It’s something that I wouldn’t like to smell in the middle of my match.”
The USTA’s stance is firm, even if its control has limits: while it cannot dictate what happens in the surrounding park, it insists the National Tennis Center itself remains a smoke-free environment and says it is staying vigilant.
Sabalenka’s complaint on Armstrong turned that background grumble into a very public flashpoint. The smell had reached one of the sport’s biggest stars, in one of the tournament’s showpiece arenas, during a live match.
World No. 1 shuts out the noise
Once play resumed, Sabalenka did what top seeds are supposed to do. She shut it all out.
The Belarusian, defending her US Open title, re-set quickly and reasserted control over Rakhimova. The early break held, the first set went her way 6-3, and the pattern never really shifted. She kept her level high, managed the scoreboard without fuss and closed out a 6-3, 6-4 win without dropping a set.
No drama on the scoreboard, even if there was plenty in the air.
The victory sends Sabalenka into the fourth round still perfect in sets, her title defence intact, her focus apparently unshaken by the latest reminder that at this US Open, the atmosphere doesn’t always come just from the crowd.
