{"id":753655,"date":"2026-08-29T14:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T14:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/753655\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T14:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T14:52:12","slug":"katie-boulter-says-cannabis-smell-at-us-open-is-distracting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/753655\/","title":{"rendered":"Katie Boulter says cannabis smell at US Open is distracting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The smell of cannabis has been a persistent issue at the US Open. <\/p>\n

In 2022, Australian Open doubles champion Nick Kyrgios complained that a fan was triggering his asthma<\/a> by smoking courtside, prompting the umpire to ask supporters to refrain.<\/p>\n

Greece’s Maria Sakkari pointed the smell out to an umpire<\/a> midway through a set in 2023, later clarifying that it wasn’t an excuse for her defeat.<\/p>\n

The United States Tennis Association, which organises the event, says it works with the local police and parks department to reduce smoking on the site boundary.<\/p>\n

It said: “While we can’t control what takes place off the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, we continue to be vigilant as we maintain this.”<\/p>\n

Britain’s Fran Jones and Harriet Dart, who both qualified on Friday<\/a>, have also noticed the smell.<\/p>\n

“Last year I made a joke about that, in my first round, and I said to the guy, ‘is this normal?'” said Jones, whose tournament begins against Poland’s Magda Linette on Monday.<\/p>\n

“Because I was on the stadium, and it’s next to the park. He’s like, ‘yeah”. and I was like: ‘Well, no wonder I’m playing pretty well.’<\/p>\n

“This year I’ll be like ‘no, lock in, lock in!'”<\/p>\n

After beating British compatriot Heather Watson in qualifying to set up a first-round match against the United States’ Peyton Stearns, Dart said: “I mean it’s New York. It’s New York. <\/p>\n

“I feel like everywhere you walk around, it’s everywhere, no?<\/p>\n

“It is what it is. Same for everyone.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The smell of cannabis has been a persistent issue at the US Open. In 2022, Australian Open doubles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-753655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}