{"id":2737,"date":"2026-09-04T16:27:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T16:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2737"},"modified":"2026-09-04T16:27:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T16:27:01","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-stops-play-at-us-open-due-to-strong-smell-of-weed-despite-claims-its-a-non-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2737","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka stops play at US Open due to \u2018strong\u2019 smell of weed despite claims it\u2019s a \u2018non-issue\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> stopped her third-round US Open match to complain to the umpire about the smell of weed inside Louis Armstrong Stadium.<\/p>\n

During the third game of her contest with Kamila Rakhimova, the No 1 seed spoke to the chair umpire and said, \u201cSomeone is smoking weed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old was 30-0 up and was serving at the south end of the stadium, which is the second-biggest behind Arthur Ashe at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n

The defending US Open<\/a> champion then said to the official, \u201cWould you mind to (tell them to deal with it) because it\u2019s so strong?\u201d<\/p>\n

The umpire quickly radioed for assistance, prompting US Open staff to head into the crowd to try and find the smell\u2019s source.<\/p>\n

More US Open News<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Sabalenka<\/a> is not the only player to complain about these odours wafting around the grounds this week. Adrian Mannarino<\/a> was not best-pleased with what he thought was a lack of tennis etiquette from some in the crowd and at Flushing Meadows \u2013 which has seen a rise in paid influencers attend the event.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old Frenchman said after his second-round defeat to Alexander Bublik, \u201cNow people are allowed to move around in the crowd during points. Before, they were not allowed in the court except during changeovers. Now they come in whenever they feel like it; they move around and talk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tournament puts up with it, and I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s the best thing for tennis in general. There\u2019s a smell of marijuana on the court, noise everywhere; the truth is it\u2019s turning into a bit of a zoo. The playing conditions are really peculiar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it is forbidden to smoke weed inside the tournament\u2019s grounds, some ex-professionals believe it is much ado about nothing.<\/p>\n

Indeed, prior to the Sabalenka incident, the Nothing Major<\/a> podcast team of John Isner, Sam Querrey, and Steve Johnson felt it was a \u201cnon-issue\u201d.<\/p>\n

Isner said, \u201cPlayers [are] complaining about the aroma of cannabis around the grounds? Especially on court. You walk around New York City, you smell it everywhere. But players have been complaining about it. Mannarino complained about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause now people are allowed to move around in the stands during the points. I like that. What do you all think about the weed smell that these players are dealing with on the court? Non-issue?\u201d<\/p>\n

Querrey<\/a> batted the complaints away, and called on the tournament\u2019s critics to stop moaning about everything.<\/p>\n

The former world No 11 said, \u201cIt\u2019s a non-issue. If it\u2019s anything, it\u2019s like way back in a practice court or something. It\u2019s great. This tournament\u2019s awesome. All this stuff with the influencers that are taking over. People on the internet are such idiots. Everyone\u2019s just complaining to complain.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems this debate and the smell of weed at the Championships may linger on.<\/p>\n

GO DEEPER:\u00a0<\/strong>Sam Querrey dispels \u2018myth\u2019 around Alexander Zverev after latest US Open win \u2013 and Andre Agassi agrees<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The post Aryna Sabalenka stops play at US Open due to \u2018strong\u2019 smell of weed despite claims it\u2019s a \u2018non-issue\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka stopped her third-round US Open match to complain to the umpire about the smell of weed inside Louis Armstrong Stadium. During the third game of her contest with Kamila Rakhimova, the No 1 seed spoke to the chair umpire and said, \u201cSomeone is smoking weed.\u201d The 28-year-old was 30-0 up and was serving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}