{"id":672692,"date":"2026-09-04T18:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/672692\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T18:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:43:11","slug":"us-open-2026-results-aryna-sabalenkas-win-over-kamilla-rakhimova-interrupted-by-cannabis-smell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/672692\/","title":{"rendered":"US Open 2026 results: Aryna Sabalenka’s win over Kamilla Rakhimova interrupted by cannabis smell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka briefly halted her US Open match against Kamilla Rakhimova because of a strong smell of cannabis before cruising into the fourth round in New York.<\/b><\/p>\n

Top seed Sabalenka raised the issue after going 3-0 up in the first set against Uzbekistan’s Rakhimova, telling umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore that “someone is smoking weed”.<\/p>\n

The Belarusian asked the umpire to intervene “because it’s so strong”.<\/p>\n

Asderaki-Moore spoke to an official on her radio and made a smoking gesture to someone behind her, before play continued.<\/p>\n

Two-time defending champion Sabalenka went on to secure a confident 6-3 6-4 victory on Louis Armstrong Stadium as she chases a fifth Grand Slam singles title.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka is not the first player at this year’s US Open to complain about smelling cannabis on court at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n

Last week, Britain’s Katie Boulter said it was distracting,<\/a> while Harriet Dart and Francesca Jones also noticed the smell.<\/p>\n

In previous years players including Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev have also complained.<\/p>\n

Smoking is not permitted on site at Flushing Meadows but the smell of cannabis sometimes wafts on to court from the nearby Corona Park.<\/p>\n

It is legal to smoke it in New York for adults aged 21 and over.<\/p>\n

Victory marked Sabalenka’s 16th straight win at Flushing Meadows as she bids to become the first woman since Serena Williams in 2012-2014 to complete a hat-trick of US Open singles titles.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old showcased her trademark power from the start against Rakhimova, dropping just four points on serve in a confident opening set.<\/p>\n

Although Rakhimova fought well in the second set, Sabalenka secured the crucial break to go 5-4 up before safely serving out victory.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka served 10 aces to Rakhimova’s two and did not face a single break point.<\/p>\n

She will face either American Taylor Townsend or Russian 15th seed Diana Shnaider – who beat her in the French Open quarter-finals in June – next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka briefly halted her US Open match against Kamilla Rakhimova because of a strong smell of cannabis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-672692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117214249432029892","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}