Greg Rusedski has called on US Open organisers to ban the smoking of weed at Flushing Meadows following complaints from a number of players.<\/p>\n
Aryna Sabalenka was forced to stop her third-round US Open match<\/a> against Kamila Rakhimova due to the smell of cannabis inside Louis Armstrong Stadium.<\/span><\/p>\n At the time, the No 1 seed complained to the umpire that someone was \u201csmoking weed\u201d and later said it was very \u201ctricky\u201d to handle the smell when trying to compete.<\/p>\n Adrian Mannarino claimed the US Open<\/a> was turning into a \u201cbit of a zoo\u201d due to the smell of marijuana and the crowds not respecting the usual tennis etiquette, and Katie Boulter said these aromas were off-putting, too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Although recreational weed use is legal in the city of New York, former world No 4 Rusedski<\/a> thinks it has no place at the US Open.<\/p>\n Aryna Sabalenka issues desperate plea to fans after latest win at the US Open<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz picks his dream doubles partner after another US Open win<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as\u00a0<\/span>a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n The former US Open finalist said on Off Court<\/a>, \u201cIn New York, it\u2019s legal to smoke weed. You can have it in your possession. From my perspective, I don\u2019t like it at a sporting event. I don\u2019t think it puts a good image for the city.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat does that say to kids, if you\u2019ve got that smell and stench around? I think the US Open should be a no smoking zone, whether it\u2019s cigarettes, whether it\u2019s weed.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an athletic competition. I don\u2019t understand how the USTA (United States Tennis Association) can\u2019t get together with the mayor of New York (Zohran Mamdani) and say, \u2018Look, guys, we don\u2019t want this at our venue and we don\u2019t want this for the image of tennis\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure if you\u2019re allowed to do that at the American football games and baseball and all those other sporting events, maybe you are, but I just don\u2019t think that sits together with sport and I can understand the player\u2019s point of view.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t like the smell of it. I don\u2019t like it around that environment and I think they\u2019ve got to do something about it. I agree with Boulter. I agree with Sabalenka<\/a>. It has no right, I believe, to be at the US Open, to be at majors, to be at tennis tournaments.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the wrong image. It\u2019s the wrong message. Yes, society\u2019s opened up in that respect. Maybe I\u2019m old fashioned, but that\u2019s just my view.\u201d<\/p>\n Rusedski believes that USTA CEO Craig Tiley will listen to the concerns of players and address this matter.\u00a0And if the \u201cimage\u201d of this Grand Slam is not right, the tournament and the city could suffer financially, due to the negative knock-on effect of this.<\/p>\n He added, \u201cHe [Tiley] will take all these things in from the players. He will find solutions. He did a great job with the Australian Open. Because this is a global image and if we\u2019re talking about it, other people around the world are talking about it. This is a premier event that makes hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only for the tennis tournament, the USTA, but also for the city of New York with hotels and everything that\u2019s encompassed is probably maybe a billion to $2billion revenue for the city and the tournament. So they want to get this right and they want to get the right image. So I think next year, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll be talking about these things.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: Aryna Sabalenka plunges US Open in fresh controversy over week comments<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Greg Rusedski calls for US Open weed ban after Aryna Sabalenka and players\u2019 complaints<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Greg Rusedski has called on US Open organisers to ban the smoking of weed at Flushing Meadows following complaints from a number of players. Aryna Sabalenka was forced to stop her third-round US Open match against Kamila Rakhimova due to the smell of cannabis inside Louis Armstrong Stadium. At the time, the No 1 seed […]<\/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-2742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742","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=2742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More US Open News<\/strong><\/h2>\n