Aryna Sabalenka Addresses Cannabis Distraction at US Open

Aryna Sabalenka has played in enough noisy, chaotic arenas to know what distraction feels like. This was different.

Early in her US Open third-round match on Louis Armstrong Stadium, the world No 1 suddenly backed off the baseline, wrinkled her nose and turned toward the chair. The tennis stopped. The smell did not.

“Someone is smoking weed,” she told umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore as she prepared to serve at 30-0, already 3-0 up on Kamilla Rakhimova after a blistering start. “Would you mind to… because it’s so strong.”

The exchange lasted only a few seconds, but it cut through the usual New York hum. On a night when Sabalenka again underlined why she sits atop the rankings with a routine straight-sets win over the Uzbek, it was the haze drifting across the court that stole the early headlines.

The interruption came in her second service game. Sabalenka, locked into her rhythm and in full control of the scoreboard, suddenly found herself battling an opponent no game plan can quite cover: a heavy waft of cannabis smoke rolling into the stadium.

Once play resumed, the match followed a familiar script. Sabalenka’s power, precision and tempo proved far too much for Rakhimova, the top seed closing out another efficient victory to move deeper into the draw. The scoreline was never in doubt. Her irritation with the air quality, though, lingered.

Speaking to reporters later, Sabalenka made it clear this was not a moral crusade, just a plea for basic conditions.

“I was like, Guys, you can do whatever, you can smoke whatever, you can relax as much as you can, but please do not do it around the tennis courts,” she said with a smile. “It’s a bit tricky to handle that smell while you’re trying to compete at your best.”

At Flushing Meadows, the sweet, skunky scent is no novelty. The odour of cannabis has become an unwelcome but recurring subplot at the US Open, with players in recent years complaining about the distraction during matches on the outside courts and show courts alike.

Smoking is not allowed inside the grounds, yet recreational cannabis is legal for adults 21 and over in New York. The tournament site sits next to Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, where people can legally light up. When the wind turns, the smoke can drift across the fences and straight into the tennis complex, settling over courts where the margins are measured in millimetres.

Sabalenka said she had noticed the smell earlier in the tournament, but never with the intensity she felt on Friday.

“That strong, yeah. Also, because it was a bit windy,” she explained. “I don’t know if it was coming from the crowd or was from the outside because the wind blows it into the stadium.”

For a player chasing another major title, it is one more layer of chaos in a city that already tests focus like few others. She can live with the noise, the movement, the late starts. A thick cloud of cannabis mid-service motion is another matter.

“I just hope they are a bit more aware of that stuff,” she said, before the press conference veered back again to the subject. Sabalenka laughed, cutting off the line of questioning. “Come on, guys. I think there is nothing else to say about weed. I’m just asking people not to smoke it next to the tennis court.”

New York will always bring its own atmosphere. The world No 1 has shown she can handle almost all of it. The question now is whether the tournament can keep the city’s more pungent habits from drifting into the heart of its showpiece matches.