From music to marijuana, US Open ‘circus’ challenges players

NEW YORK – Whether it is the thumping music, the rowdy spectators or the aroma of marijuana, maintaining concentration presents a huge challenge for players at the world’s most raucous Grand Slam – the US Open.

“There’s a lot of noise this year,” said France’s Adrian Mannarino.

Mannarino, 37, who played in the main draw at Flushing Meadows for the 15th time, wondered whether the distractions are too much.

“I find it’s a bit of a circus on the court – people move between games, sometimes between points. We let everything happen a little too much. It’s still tennis, not football!” he said.

Mannarino was speaking after his second-round match on the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre’s Court 11, where noise from the giant, 23,000-capacity Arthur Ashe Stadium nearby – the largest arena in tennis – can be a distraction. He eventually lost in the last 16.

“When a match ends on (Ashe), the music is blaring, people are making noise... it makes it harder for all the players to concentrate,” lamented the left-hander.

The unrelenting background noise is a far cry from the religious silence prevailing at Grand Slam venues like Wimbledon’s Centre Court.

Yet the background din does not bother world No. 4 Jessica Pegula in the least.

“I don’t really get bothered by crowd or fan movement and stuff like that,” said Pegula, a US Open finalist in 2024, who expressed sympathy with spectators who are prevented from entering the arena when games are under way.

“I hate when you’re standing outside and it’s two really long games and you have to wait for a changeover,” she said. “From a fan perspective, to have to wait and miss like a huge part of the match, that’s not fun.”

In 2024, tournament organisers moved to relax restrictions on fan movement, allowing spectators to come and go more freely, depending on their proximity to the court.

At its most unruly – often during late-night matches on Ashe, when many spectators are well lubricated by alcohol – the New York crowd can be downright hostile.

In a stormy first-round match, France’s Benjamin Bonzi was forced to wait six minutes before being able to serve on match point as waves of catcalls and jeers rained down from the stands over a perceived umpiring injustice against his opponent, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev.

“I was in a very good position, it was match point,” Bonzi said. “Every time I approached the baseline to serve, everyone booed me. I don’t think I did anything during the match to deserve such treatment,” the world No. 51 said.

“It’s very difficult to play tennis when you can’t hear the sound of the ball, the shots,” he concluded.

During his loss to seventh seed Novak Djokovic on Arthur Ashe on Aug 29, Britain’s Cameron Norrie said the noise prevented him from being able to communicate with his team in the stands.

“It’s like a constant chatter of people talking,” Norrie said, describing the atmosphere as “amazing” albeit “weird”.

“In any other court, you would be stopping to play, but you kind of have to be ready to play. I was trying to talk to my team a little bit and I couldn’t even hear what they were saying,” Norrie said.

Aside from the din in the stands, players competing in the final Grand Slam of the season also have to contend with the ballet of planes taking off and landing at LaGuardia Airport, and the screeching of the nearby subway, which ferries fans to and from Flushing Meadows.

The constant bustle of the city that never sleeps is in sharp contrast to the more serene settings of other Grand Slam events, whether it is the bucolic setting of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, the meandering beauty of the Yarra River in Melbourne or the leafy suburbs of Wimbledon.

In addition to the noise, players must also contend with the occasional scent of marijuana wafting over, particularly on Court 17, which borders a park.

Several players have commented on the issue over the years, with world No. 3 Alexander Zverev stating that playing on Court 17 was like “being in Snoop Dogg’s living room”, in a reference to the marijuana-using American rapper. AFP