{"id":135521,"date":"2025-09-11T06:25:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T06:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/135521\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T06:25:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T06:25:15","slug":"the-reason-aryna-sabalenka-was-practically-kicked-out-of-arthur-ashe-stadium-straight-after-her-us-open-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/135521\/","title":{"rendered":"The reason Aryna Sabalenka was ‘practically kicked out’ of Arthur Ashe Stadium straight after her US Open win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After several tough losses in 2025, Aryna Sabalenka finally added to her Grand Slam tally at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n

Losing in the finals of the Australian Open and Roland Garros, and the semifinals of Wimbledon<\/a>, Sabalenka travelled to New York with a point to prove.<\/p>\n

Determined not to finish the season without a major, Sabalenka defeated Amanda Anisimova<\/a> 6-3, 7-6, to defend her US Open title.<\/p>\n

\"ArynaPhoto by TIMOTHY A.CLARY\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Celebrating with her team, Sabalenka<\/a> was enjoying herself before being quickly ushered out of Arthur Ashe Stadium.<\/p>\n

Former German star Andrea Petkovic<\/a> has now revealed why everyone, including Sabalenka and her team, was told to leave the premises.<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka was \u2018practically kicked out\u2019 by the Secret Service ahead of Donald Trump\u2019s visit<\/p>\n

During the latest episode of \u2018Becker Petkovic\u2019, the 38-year-old commented on the security measures implemented at the 2025 US Open<\/a> ahead of President Donald Trump\u2019s visit for the men\u2019s final.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was completely checked. We were only allowed to come to the facility with a mobile phone and had to be there at nine o\u2019clock in the morning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were the safety precautions. Also, the day before, at ten o\u2019clock, Saturday, so before the men\u2019s final, everyone had to leave the facility because the Secret Service went through to check everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cAryna Sabalenka was still in the locker room celebrating with her team, and she was then practically kicked out to continue celebrating elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ArynaPhoto by Maddie Meyer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s decision to return to the US Open after a ten-year absence caused difficulties, as some fans missed large portions of the final while passing through the heightened security checks.<\/p>\n

Petkovic was left frustrated by this, suggesting the atmosphere wasn\u2019t quite as electric as she had hoped.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really not a political person, I have to be honest. What bothered me about the whole thing was that I was completely distracted from the tennis,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stadium was half empty for the first set, and the mood, I don\u2019t know if it was broadcast on television, but I was in the stadium, the mood was completely dead.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it had nothing to do with Carlos [Alcaraz] and nothing with Jannik [Sinner], but everyone was busy with other things. Everyone was looking at their phones, refreshing the news all the time to see why the stadium was empty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat bothered me so much that I realised that the atmosphere in the stadium was destroyed, especially at the beginning, that the stadium was half empty until the middle of the second set, and then also in the third, it still wasn\u2019t filled.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who had spent a lot of money on tickets probably missed half of the match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petkovic did, however, understand that the situation was largely unavoidable.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the other hand, I have to say, it\u2019s incredibly difficult,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how they could have done it any differently. You couldn\u2019t have said, Don\u2019t come at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petkovic\u2019s co-host, Boris Becker<\/a>, agreed, as he gave his verdict on Trump\u2019s attendance.<\/p>\n

Boris Becker says Donald Trump\u2019s attendance was \u2018fundamentally good\u2019 for tennis<\/p>\n

The former world number one was happy to see the serving president travel to New York for the men\u2019s singles final.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, I think it is fundamentally important and good that the president of the respective country where a Grand Slam takes place wants to come to the final,\u201d said Becker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis emphasises the importance of tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BorisPhoto by Jean Catuffe\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, like Petkovic, Becker wasn\u2019t too impressed with the impact his visit had on the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it must be possible to take the safety precautions in such a way that the players do not have to start in front of a half-empty stadium,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are talking about Alcaraz-Sinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watching Sinner and Alcaraz play the third match of their Grand Slam final trilogy in front of a half-empty stadium felt wrong, and you couldn\u2019t help but think the situation was avoidable.<\/p>\n

Simply starting the match later, or advising Trump to arrive earlier, might have prevented the issue, although we will likely never know what conversations went on behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

Only time will tell if we will see Trump return to Arthur Ashe in 2026, but it will certainly be something to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After several tough losses in 2025, Aryna Sabalenka finally added to her Grand Slam tally at Flushing Meadows.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6732,6005,49,48,1376,82,2084,4306],"class_list":{"0":"post-135521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-andrea-petkovic","9":"tag-aryna-sabalenka","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-us-open","15":"tag-wta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}