{"id":67207,"date":"2026-09-06T18:13:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/67207\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T18:13:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:13:40","slug":"with-delays-and-distractions-is-tennis-losing-at-the-u-s-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/67207\/","title":{"rendered":"With delays and distractions, is tennis losing at the U.S. Open?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Matches ending past 2 a.m. The unending din inside Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong stadiums. Social media influencers filming content during points. And, on Friday, the pungent smell of marijuana wafting onto the court strongly enough for the world\u2019s No. 1 player to complain to the chair umpire.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Open has long prided itself as being the loudest, brashest and unmistakably New York-iest of tennis\u2019 four Grand Slam tournaments. But through the first week of this year\u2019s event, a question has intruded on the spectacle: When does atmosphere start to supersede tennis?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it makes it fun, because it makes it New York that it\u2019s so kind of all over the place and chaotic,\u201d top-ranked American and No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula<\/a> said Friday. But, she added, some things could be better managed to keep outside factors from interfering with matches.<\/p>\n

The latest example came during Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s third-round victory over Kamilla Rakhimova. The two-time defending champion from Belarus stopped play to tell the chair umpire she could smell marijuana.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A general view of Arthur Ashe Stadium as Taylor Townsend serves against Aryna Sabalenka during their U.S. Open singles match on Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Julian Finney \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys, you can do whatever, you can smoke whatever, you can relax as much as you can,\u201d Sabalenka said afterward. \u201cBut please, do not do it around the tennis courts. It\u2019s a bit tricky to handle that smell while you\u2019re trying to compete at your best.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was hardly the first sensory intrusion at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n

Noise, odors and general mayhem have gone hand-in-hand at the tournament almost since it moved here in 1978. Jets from nearby LaGuardia Airport roared overhead and trains rumbled alongside the grounds. Late nights and boozy fans could add to the mayhem. Contemporary accounts of the 1979 tournament described hamburgers sizzling over charcoal and pungent knockwurst and sauerkraut mixing with overflowing garbage cans and a mysterious Grandstand stench thought to come from decomposing soft-drink syrup in a drain.<\/p>\n

That same year produced one of the most calamitous nights in tournament history.<\/p>\n

During a second-round match between two of tennis\u2019 most combustible personalities, Ilie Nastase and John McEnroe, chair umpire Frank Hammond penalized and eventually defaulted Nastase for his behavior. The crowd revolted, showering the court with cups, beer cans and garbage. Officials reversed the default and removed Hammond from the chair. After a roughly 20-minute interruption, play resumed, with McEnroe finally winning at 12:35 a.m.<\/p>\n

In short, unruly crowds, strange smells, intrusive noise and late nights are not unique inventions of the TikTok era.<\/p>\n

What has changed is the scale and, increasingly, the intentionality of the display.<\/p>\n

During former No. 1 Naomi Osaka\u2019s<\/a> opening match on Ashe, a group of influencers in a courtside suite drew attention for making videos and using lights while play was underway. The episode went viral and prompted debate about the growing presence of content creators at sporting events \u2014 and whether newcomers are being adequately schooled in tennis\u2019 distinct etiquette.<\/p>\n

\"Naomi <\/p>\n

Naomi Osaka returns a shot against Anastasia Zakharova during their opening round match at the U.S. Open on Aug. 31.<\/p>\n

(Mike Stobe \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s Osaka, the 2018 and 2020 U.S. Open champion, saw the benefit of introducing the sport to new audiences, but also a limit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you come to a sporting event, you have to respect the sport,\u201d she said following her win. Osaka added, \u201cI think it has to be managed a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n

No. 4 seed Coco Gauff<\/a> took a similar view, suggesting that brands inviting influencers could do more to educate them about customs such as avoiding flash photography and excessive talking during points, which goes against the grain of most major sporting events.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re being invited to a red carpet, you wouldn\u2019t show up in jeans,\u201d 2023 U.S. Open champion Gauff said in a news conference. \u201cI think it\u2019s just follow the etiquette of the sport. That\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

For players, the distinction between atmosphere and interference can be more than a matter of manners. Noise and crowd movement can make it harder to pick up an opponent\u2019s ball, often where tolerance for the commotion ends.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, No. 11 seed Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine called Ashe and Armstrong \u201cvery, very, very loud\u201d at virtually all times. Constant noise can eventually fade into the background, but initially it can be difficult to adjust.<\/p>\n

During one stretch on Ashe, Kostyuk said, \u201cI didn\u2019t even hear the ball, like even when I was hitting it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex de Minaur offered a similar assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt times on Ashe or on Louis … it\u2019s sometimes so loud you struggle to hear the ball,\u201d said the sixth-seeded Australian, who bowed out in the second round on Thursday. \u201cThat\u2019s probably something you don\u2019t really get anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sensory overload has been accompanied by some extraordinarily late nights, which have some wondering about how to better handle scheduling of a sport with no time clock, or whether it\u2019s reasonable for any athlete to compete at that hour. Three of the first six night sessions at the U.S. Open have finished past 2 a.m. the following morning.<\/p>\n

Venus Williams and Sofia Kenin did not begin their first-round match until 12:13 a.m. \u2014 the tournament\u2019s latest match start in history. Kenin completed her victory at 2:01 a.m.<\/p>\n

Williams, 46 and the 2000 and 2001 U.S. Open titlist, called the evening \u201ccompletely insane\u201d and said finding her best tennis in the wee hours of the morning was difficult.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A rowdy fan reacts to being asked to leave during the fourth set of Learner Tien\u2019s match against Jakub Mensik at the U.S. Open. on Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Caleb Bowlin \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Four nights later, No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany needed four hours, 33 minutes to beat Quentin Halys in another five-set Ashe marathon, finally finishing at about 2:15 a.m.<\/p>\n

Yet many players don\u2019t mind the madness.<\/p>\n

Learner Tien<\/a> knew what he faced when he stepped on Armstrong against retiring star Gael Monfils of France.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expected a very rowdy court, rowdy match,\u201d the 20-year-old Irvine native said after dispatching Monfils in straight sets on Thursday. \u201cI\u2019m glad the atmosphere was like that. I think it makes the matches a lot more enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n

His boundary was simple: \u201cAs long as no one is shouting in the middle of the points and stuff, I think it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Sabalenka, marijuana notwithstanding, said she loves the noise.<\/p>\n

\"Frances <\/p>\n

Frances Tiafoe celebrates with a fan after a win over Valentin Vacherot at the U.S. Open on Friday.<\/p>\n

(Mike Stobe \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoy this loud atmosphere in the stadium,\u201d the 28-year-old said.<\/p>\n

That contradiction is at the heart of the U.S. Open, even if there appears to be a growing disconnect between sport and spectacle.<\/p>\n

Unlike Wimbledon\u2019s manicured restraint or the French Open\u2019s Parisian chic, New York has long offered something more unruly, with night tennis, celebrity, noise and spectators willing to make themselves part of the show. The atmosphere isn\u2019t incidental to the tournament\u2019s identity. It is part of the product.<\/p>\n

If the USTA\u2019s new chief executive has his way, there will be more of it. Craig Tiley, who took over the organization in July after two decades helping transform the Australian Open into an entertainment festival, said in a pre-tournament news conference he wants the U.S. Open to become a \u201ctennis Disneyland.\u201d He did not mean it as a warning.<\/p>\n

And tennis is changing. Tournaments are pursuing younger audiences accustomed to the continuous movement and noise of other professional sports, challenging traditions that have long governed how spectators behave.<\/p>\n

Pegula suggested some of the friction may simply be newcomers learning those traditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cTennis etiquette, it\u2019s something you have to learn as you go to these events,\u201d she said. \u201cHopefully now that there has been some attention towards it that maybe now when they do come to matches they\u2019ll be a little bit more informed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Matches ending past 2 a.m. The unending din inside Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong stadiums. Social media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25833,567,25834,2394,25609,24581,99,270,2143,14189,113,28,3997,2388,25832],"class_list":["post-67207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-a-m","tag-arthur-ashe","tag-atmosphere","tag-event","tag-influencer","tag-late-night","tag-match","tag-naomi-osaka","tag-no","tag-noise","tag-sport","tag-tennis","tag-thursday","tag-tournament","tag-u-s-open-champion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67207","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=67207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}