Rain fell on Louis Armstrong Stadium's court after a roof sensor failure delayed its closing. Matthew Stockman / Getty ImagesAug. 30, 2026 Updated 11:09 pm EDTNEW YORK — Rain delays are bad for tennis, but good for Honey Deuce sales.Sunday night at the U.S. Open, a rain delay and a brief roof failure combined to leave lines for the drink snaking round Louis Armstrong Stadium, the second-biggest court at the tournament.After a day of fine but humid weather, the tournament’s night session, which includes two matches on each of Armstrong and Arthur Ashe Stadium, started a little after 7 p.m. ET On Armstrong, No. 9 seed Elina Svitolina needed just 51 minutes to defeat Argentina’s Solana Sierra 6-1, 6-2, meaning that No. 15 seed Alexander Bublik and American wild card J.J. Wolf’s match was set to start earlier than expected.But around 20 minutes after Svitolina finished, it started to rain. Play was suspended on the outside courts, but the roofs could close on Armstrong and Ashe, protecting Bublik and Wolf, and Novak Djokovic and Mariano Navone, from the elements.Except, Armstrong’s roof didn’t close. A mechanical issue with the roof sensors, a spokesperson for the USTA said, meant that it remained open while rain poured onto the court below. In total — including the roof’s delayed closing, and the need to dry the court — Bublik and Wolf waited around 90 minutes longer than they should have to start their match.After being stuck open in the rain, fans cheered when the roof closed. The concession lines that had grown while they waited for the court to dry thinned out, and the match ultimately started off at about 9:30 p.m.By 9:45 p.m. ET, at least one Louis Armstrong bar was down to its final melon balls.