![\"Jessica](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/7554c38771e54078e22906792ecb2cbd.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nAryna Sabalenka had an unusual interruption during her US Open third-round match, stopping play to \u200balert the umpire to a strong smell of cannabis drifting onto Louis Armstrong Stadium court.<\/p>\n
The world number one, who secured a 6-3, 6-4 win against Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova, \u200braised the issue during her \u200csecond service game, pointing out the smell before play resumed.<\/p>\n
“Someone is smoking weed,” top seed Sabalenka told umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore as she was serving 30-0 up.<\/p>\n
“Do you mind? Because it’s \u200cso strong.”<\/p>\n
Sabalenka later told reporters she was not objecting to anyone enjoying themselves but pleaded for the smoking to be kept away from the \u200ccourt.<\/p>\n
“I was like, ‘Guys, you can \u200bdo whatever, you can \u200csmoke whatever, you can relax as much as you can, but please not do it around the tennis courts,'” a smiling Sabalenka said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a bit tricky to handle that smell while you’re trying to compete at your best.”<\/p>\n
The odour of \u200bcannabis \u200chas become a familiar \u2014 if unwelcome \u2014 feature at Flushing Meadows, with players complaining about the distraction in the past.<\/p>\n
While smoking is not permitted inside the grounds, \u2060recreational cannabis is legal for adults over \u200c21 in New York.<\/p>\n
Smoke from people in the surrounding Flushing Meadows-Corona Park can drift into the tennis complex and \u200con to the courts.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka said she had previously smelled cannabis at the tournament but never so strongly during a match, with the wind \u200capparently \u200bcarrying the odour into \u2060the stadium.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know if it was coming from the crowd or was from the outside because the wind blows it into the stadium,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I just hope they \u2060are a bit more aware of that stuff.”<\/p>\n
As her post-match media conference continued, Sabalenka laughed when questions returned to the subject.<\/p>\n
“Come \u200con, guys. I \u200cthink there is nothing else to say about weed,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I’m just \u200basking people not to smoke it next to the tennis court.”<\/p>\n
Pegula advances to fourth round<\/p>\n
Jessica Pegula rallied from behind to beat fellow \u200bformer US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 and make the fourth round.<\/p>\n
Third seed Pegula faces Sorana C\u00eerstea in the last 16 and will need to iron out some of the flaws in \u200bher game after a sluggish \u200cstart against Fernandez.<\/p>\n
But the American showed the resilience and composure that have made her one of the title contenders.<\/p>\n
Back at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where her dream run ended against Emma Raducanu in \u200cthe 2021 final, Fernandez seized the initiative and rarely allowed Pegula \u2060to find any rhythm early in the contest.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jessica Pegula moved through to the fourth round after defeating Leylah Fernandez. (Getty Images: Al Bello)<\/p>\n
“It was really tough \u200ctoday. I always feel it’s hard \u200bto play her. I \u200cnever feel comfortable when I play her, even when I have won,” said Pegula, who was the 2024 US Open runner-up.<\/p>\n
“I was going to have to dig deep. I’m glad I was able to find somewhere there in the second set to turn it around.<\/p>\n
“She’s a great player, so \u200bit \u200cwas really hard. A lot of it revolves around my serve. My serve percentage was pretty bad.”<\/p>\n
Romanian 16th seed C\u00eerstea, 36, extended her impressive farewell-season campaign with \u200ca \u200bclinical 6-3, 6-3 win over \u2060Italy’s 19th-seeded Jasmine Paolini.<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s \u200cMarta Kostyuk, seeded 11th in New York, advanced to the fourth round with a straight-sets 6-3, 6-2 victory over Russian \u200cEkaterina Alexandrova.<\/p>\n
In the men’s draw, Russian seventh seed Daniil Medvedev overpowered Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech with a \u200b6,-4 6-4, 6-4 victory.<\/p>\n
Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka had an unusual interruption during her US Open third-round match, stopping play to \u200balert the umpire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[217,22515,1021,1965,183,2904,1845,823,25468,863,28,463,22894],"class_list":["post-65775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-cannabis","tag-daniil-medvedev","tag-flushing-meadows","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-kamilla-rakhimova","tag-leylah-fernandez","tag-marta-kostyuk","tag-smell","tag-sorana-cirstea","tag-tennis","tag-us-open","tag-weed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}