World number one Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s straight-sets US Open win against Kamilla Rakhimova stopped by smell of cannabis.<\/p>\n
Published On 4 Sep 20264 Sep 2026<\/p>\n
World number one Aryna Sabalenka had an unusual interruption during \u2060her US Open third-round \u2060match, stopping play to alert the umpire to a strong smell of cannabis drifting onto the Louis Armstrong Stadium court.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka, who \u2060had made a fast start to go 3-0 ahead before securing a straight-sets win against Uzbekistan\u2019s Kamilla Rakhimova, raised the issue during her second service game on Friday, pointing \u2060out the smell before play resumed.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSomeone is smoking weed,\u201d top seed Sabalenka told umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore as she was serving 30-0 up. \u201cWould you mind to\u2026 because it\u2019s so strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabalenka later told reporters she was not objecting to anyone enjoying themselves, but asked for the smoking \u200cto be kept away from the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, Guys, you can do whatever, you can smoke whatever, you can relax as much as you can, but please to not do it around the tennis courts,\u201d a smiling Sabalenka said. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit tricky to handle that smell while you\u2019re trying to compete at your best.\u201d<\/p>\n
The odour of cannabis has become a familiar \u2014 if unwelcome \u2014 feature at \u2060Flushing Meadows, with players complaining about the distraction in the \u2060past.<\/p>\n
While smoking is not permitted inside the grounds, recreational cannabis is legal for adults 21 and older in New York, and smoke from people in the surrounding Flushing Meadows-Corona Park can drift into the tennis \u2060complex and onto the courts.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka said she had smelled cannabis before during the tournament but never so strongly during a \u2060match, with Friday\u2019s wind apparently carrying the odour into \u2060the stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat strong, yeah. Also, because it was a bit windy,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it was coming from the crowd or was from the outside because the wind blows it into the stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cI \u200cjust hope they are a bit more aware of that stuff,\u201d she added, before laughing when the questions returned to the subject. \u201cCome on, guys. I think there is \u200cnothing \u200celse to say about weed. I\u2019m just asking people not to smoke it next to the tennis court.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World number one Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s straight-sets US Open win against Kamilla Rakhimova stopped by smell of cannabis. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,44,457,82,593,772,1690],"class_list":["post-883547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883547","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=883547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}