U.S. Open Players Catch A Whiff Of A Familiar Courtside Problem

The 2026 U.S. Open tennis tournament is underway, with mixed doubles action in the books and the main draw beginning on Sunday in New York City.Carlos Alcaraz, last year’s men’s title winner, will attempt to defend his crown as he looks to come back from a wrist injury that’s kept him out of play since April. He took part in the mixed doubles competition alongside great Serena Williams, who made her return to tennis in June after her retirement from the sport nearly four years earlier. Alcaraz-Williams, much like the pairing of stars Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka, fell in the early rounds last week.Czech duo Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik later took the W in the final.Williams, who isn’t playing in the singles competition, is set to team up with her sister Venus for the women’s doubles on Thursday. The two last played together at the U.S. Open in 2022.Top-ranked Jannik Sinner, meanwhile, has withdrawn from the tournament due to injury.On the women’s side, top-ranked Sabalenka looks to become the first woman since Williams to win three straight U.S. Open titles. Former U.S. Open champ Coco Gauff, fresh off a big Cincinnati Open win, is hoping to have similar success in Queens.The Grand Slam tournament is known to attract big names, including President Donald Trump, who has made a habit of positioning himself next to major sports events as he faces abysmal poll numbers amid his unpopular Iran war.It’s unclear whether Trump, whose appearance at last year’s men’s final prompted boos in Arthur Ashe Stadium, will return to his home borough of Queens when this year’s final goes down on Sept. 13.Check out our coverage below:U.S. Open Players Catch A Whiff Of A Familiar Courtside ProblemThe smell of marijuana continues to plague the U.S. Open.British tennis players Katie Boulter, Fran Jones and Harriet Dart have all talked during this year’s competition about the distinctive odor wafting over certain areas of Flushing Meadows.“I’m not a huge fan of it. I know a lot of players have complained on some of the specific courts,” Boulter said, according to the Press Association news agency.It’s far from the first time the smell of marijuana has been noticed by players at the tournament.Germany’s Alexander Zverev memorably compared one of the courts to a certain rapper’s home in 2023. “Court 17 definitely smells like Snoop Dogg’s living room,” he said. “Oh my God, it’s everywhere. The whole court smells like weed.”Latest Live UpdatesPlayers Worry This Year's U.S. Open Is Too LongNEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Open was a week old by the time Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz opened their title defenses.What once was a two-week quest for a Grand Slam championship now extends into a third week, and U.S. Tennis Association CEO Craig Tiley was asked how he hoped to continue that growth.“Four weeks,” he said with a smile.Some players might fear he is serious.They were already becoming wary of an overcrowded schedule that makes it hard to find many breaks, even before the U.S. Open moved up the beginning of the singles main draw last year to make it a Sunday start.“I just hope they will not start on Saturday at some point, you know? And then on Friday and on Thursday, Tuesday, Wednesday,” said Marta Kostyuk, the No. 11 seed from Ukraine. “So I hope this is it.”Kostyuk was one of the winners Sunday, and those players get the benefit of two days off before their next matches. Sabalenka and Alcaraz started Monday, the former opening day, and top-seeded Alexander Zverev and 2023 champion Coco Gauff are scheduled Tuesday on the final day of a first round that until last year was completed over two days.“So they’re finding ways to extend the tournaments, which I think is tough for the players,” said Canadian Denis Shapovalov.Leylah Fernandez, the 2021 runner-up in Flushing Meadows, said she would enjoy the extra day off after her victory Sunday to spend time with her sister, who is in New York with her.But Shapovalov, a 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist, argued that an extra day between matches doesn’t mean more time off.“Being off is when you’re at home, able to sleep in your bed and not focus on tennis, right?” he said. “We’re still going to have to come back tomorrow, practice the next two days. You’re still in that match environment, tournament environment where I’m locked in and I’m not doing things that I would be doing when I’m off. You know, having a brownie.”The expansion to a three-week event set in last year, when along with starting singles play on Sunday, the USTA shifted the mixed doubles tournament to a two-day event on the Tuesday and Wednesday preceding it. That was in hopes that top singles players would compete, which most of them wouldn’t when it was contested once their priority event began.Another day was added to that this year with a qualifying tournament that was held Monday for the final two spots in the 16-team field. With more real matches beyond the singles qualifying tournaments that take place the week before, and admission to the grounds free, there were huge crowds for what the USTA calls “fan week,” and organizers clearly want more.“This will become the tennis Disneyland,” Tiley said.He stressed that doesn’t necessarily mean extending the length of the tournament, but by finding more types of events to do during it.But extending events is exactly what tennis seems to be doing these days.It’s perhaps felt more at the Masters 1000 level, just below Grand Slams. Those have swelled to 10 days, so long that players have trouble keeping track of time. Tommy Paul was noting how well his fellow Americans performed at the recent ones in Montreal and Cincinnati, reaching the final weekend, when he caught himself.“I say weekend. I think the finals in Montreal was, like, Wednesday or something,” Paul said.Close. Ben Shelton won the title on a Thursday.Some players point to the obvious, that longer tournaments mean shorter time to recover before the next event for those who do well. Frances Tiafoe got to the final in Cincinnati, then had to pull out of the mixed doubles, where he was supposed to partner with Fernandez, for more rest.“To be honest, speaking in the locker rooms, I don’t think anybody’s a fan of how long the seasons in general are right now, fans of these three-day starts, fans of the 10-day Masters,” Shapovalov said. “You know, I think everything’s just gotten too long.”___See AP’s full tennis coverage hereVenus Williams Bows Out Of Her 26th U.S. Open In First RoundVenus Williams bowed out of her 26th U.S. Open singles appearance early Monday morning, falling in straight sets to fellow American wild card Sofia Kenin after not getting on the court until midnight.The 46-year-old lost 6-2, 7-6 (6) in what could be the final singles match at a Grand Slam, if not her illustrious career. It was Williams’ 14th consecutive singles defeat dating to her last victory in Washington in July 2025.Read more here:Novak Djokovic’s U.S. Open Ends In A Way Nobody Saw ComingNovak Djokovic grinded through physical and internal ailments, made one mistake after another and could not find what it took to beat a feisty, younger opponent who was not intimidated under the lights against tennis’ most decorated player.The 39-year-old is out of the U.S. Open after a first-round defeat to Mariano Navone on Sunday night, losing 7-6 (5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in a five-set marathon that lasted four hours and 36 minutes. It was the longest opening match of a Grand Slam in Djokovic’s career and became his earliest exit in one in two decades, dating to the 2006 Australian Open. He had never lost in the first round at the U.S. Open.“I didn’t enjoy myself,” Djokovic said. “I think it was obvious that it was an awful feeling on the court for me.”Read more here:Ex-U.S. Open Champ, Former Runner-Up Both Withdraw Due To InjuriesNEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Former champion Marin Cilic and 2022 runner-up Casper Ruud pulled out of the U.S. Open due to injuries shortly after the tournament got underway on Sunday.Cilic won the only major title of his career at Flushing Meadows 12 years ago and the Croat will be replaced in the draw by lucky loser Otto Virtanen, who faces 23rd seed Andrey Rublev in the opening round.Virtanen had pulled out of his third round qualifying match against Grigor Dimitrov with injury.Organizers did not specify what the injury to the 37-year-old Cilic was. The veteran joins a growing list of withdrawals with the likes of Jannik Sinner, Jack Draper, Joao Fonseca and Holger Rune skipping the tournament this year.Ruud, the runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz four years ago, was another high-profile player to pull out earlier and his place in the opening round will be taken by lucky loser Arthur Gea. The Frenchman meets Juan Manuel Cerundolo first up.The 27-year-old Ruud had retired during the second set of his Cincinnati Open meeting with Christopher O’Connell earlier this month and said his back injury had not recovered in time.“Unfortunately, my back hasn’t healed as quickly as we had hoped,” Ruud said on Instagram.“We’ve been optimistic that I would recover in time, but my team and I have decided that we need to think long term and give my body the time it needs. I’m very sad to announce that I have to withdraw from this year’s U.S. Open singles event.“It’s never easy to miss a Grand Slam, but I know this is the right decision. I’ll take the time I need to recover properly and come back stronger.”Ruud competed in the revamped mixed doubles tournament last week partnering Diana Shnaider and the pair were beaten in the quarter-finals by Rublev and Mirra Andreeva.(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in New York; Editing by Toby Davis)American Tennis Star Shakes Off Nerves, Wins Opening Match At The U.S. OpenNEW YORK (AP) — Third-ranked Jessica Pegula shook off nerves that contributed to a slow start against Elena-Gabriela Ruse, winning her opening match at the U.S. Open on Sunday in straight sets.Leading off at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the 32-year-old American missed her first nine opportunities to break Ruse but found a rhythm and began dominating. Coming off a trip to the final at the Cincinnati Open, which she lost to Coco Gauff, Pegula won 92% of her first-serve points on the way to a 6-3, 6-2 victory in 83 minutes.“I was so nervous,” Pegula said. “I was like sending GIFs of what I felt like. It was GIFs of people freaking out and stuff. ... The first round of a slam, there’s always a ton of nerves.”Pegula next faces the winner of the match between Venus Williams and fellow wild card Sofia Kenin. They’re set to play in the nightcap at Ashe, and Williams and sister Serena are scheduled to play doubles together.Nineteenth-seeded Jasmine Paolini also advanced in women’s singles, defeating Veronika Erjavec 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Kamilla Rakhimova beat No. 27 seed Barbora Krejcikova 7-6 (4), 6-2.On the men’s side, Daniil Medvedev was up next at Ashe against Hugo Gaston. Novak Djokovic begins his quest for a record-extending 25th Grand Slam title on Sunday night against Mariano Navone.Djokovic at 39 most recently lost his opening match earlier this month at Cincinnati.___See AP’s full tennis coverage hereThe 2026 U.S. Open Is UnderwayNEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The singles main draws got underway at the U.S. Open in good conditions on Sunday, with a record purse of $108 million up for grabs at the year’s final major at Flushing Meadows.Dozens of ticket holders were lined up long before Italian Jasmine Paolini kicked off the action at 11 a.m. ET against Slovenia’s Veronika Erjavec at Louis Armstrong Stadium, while Czech Jiri Lehecka faced Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta out at the Grandstand.Highest-ranked American woman Jessica Pegula will play the first match at the showpiece Arthur Ashe Stadium at against Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse. The 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev was due to play in the second match against France’s Hugo Gaston.Guests piled into Flushing Meadows under sunny skies with temperatures hovering around 75 degrees Fahrenheit, as the tournament entered its second year in a 15-day format with the first round played over three days.Organisers added an extra day to the schedule in 2025 following years of runaway demand for tickets and U.S. Tennis Association chief executive Craig Tiley said that the $108 million purse, the largest in tennis history, was aimed at giving players a fair share of the revenue.The 24-times Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic will kick off the night session on Ashe against Argentine Mariano Navone.With world number one Jannik Sinner out of the tournament and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz coming to New York after a long injury layoff, this year presents a prime chance for the 39-year-old Serb to add one more major trophy to his haul.The 46-year-old Venus Williams will close out the night session against fellow American wildcard Sofia Kenin.(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Ed Osmond)Roger Federer Gets Emotional During International Tennis Hall of Fame InductionNEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Roger Federer was brought to tears numerous times during his induction speech at the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday.As sunset crept in at Newport’s grass horseshoe court at the entrance of the Hall, the 45-year-old Federer, dressed in a tan suit, strolled up to the stage for his speech, kissed and hugged his wife, Mirka, who had just introduced him, and realized what a challenge it was going to be.“Oh man,” were the first words from the first man ever to win 20 Grand Slam singles titles. “This is very high level and a tough act to follow.”He joked: “I don’t know if you have been practicing secretly” before praising his wife’s presentation of the 272nd Hall of Famer.Federer was inducted along with Mary Carillo, a broadcaster and former player, who was presented by Hall of Famer Billie Jean King.Federer, called the “Swiss Maestro” during the Hall’s first red-carpet show, which began on center court about 90 minutes before the start of the induction ceremony, told the crowd that he “was a little stressed to be honest.”During his nearly 30-minute speech, Federer, who showed fluid movement and a quick approach to the net with a solid one-hand backhand that earned him a record 237 consecutive weeks as the world’s No. 1 player in the ATP rankings, chocked up a handful of times.It began to get tough for him about halfway through, when he talked about his childhood hero, Stefan Edberg, when he said these are “happy tears.”Then he was brought to tears again when he spoke about his longtime coach Severin Luthi, before he wanted to thank Mirka for helping him on his journey.“Now the Mirka part,” he said, pausing before breaking into tears. “Oh gosh, this such a mess.”He tried to joke, but the tears took over like a quick return at the net.“I need tissues and sunglasses, everything to protect me right now,” he told the crowd, fighting back more tears.But, like rallying in winning one of his five consecutive U.S. Open titles from 2004-08 or reaching 10 straight Slam finals, which he won eight, Federer closed by thanking the ball boys and encouraged players to keep taking the game new levels.Federer, who celebrated his 45th birthday three weeks ago, won eight Wimbledon titles and is only one of eight men with a career Grand Slam. He captured six Australian Opens and one French Open, in 2009.“I’m thrilled to have made the journey here,” he said. “It’s amazing to see yourself in a place like this. To immerse yourself in the history of the sport means a lot to me.”Carillo, inducted as a contributor, is a member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.King said: “She has earned her spot in sports journalism and she has earned her spot in Newport.”Carillo, 69, was touched standing in front of a handful of Hall of Famers.“To walk through these gates here in the company of you people, that was beyond my dreams,” she said.___See AP’s full tennis coverage hereCoco Gauff's Mom Has Just 1 'Blunt But Necessary' U.S. Open Ask — And Fans Are Here For ItCandi Gauff, the mother of 2023 U.S. Open champ Coco Gauff, took to Instagram on Thursday with a note to her loved ones: She can’t help EVERYONE see her tennis star daughter play in this year’s tournament.“I apologize in advance for this blunt, but necessary statement. I know you are very excited about Coco playing in the US Open. Me too!!! Coco’s guest ticket request have already been accounted for,” she wrote alongside a pic of her daughter celebrating her Cincinnati Open title on Sunday.“Unfortunately, I will not be able to hook you up with a ticket.”She went on to suggest that her friends and family should arrange to buy a ticket on their own and, in the future, not to ask for more than two.“Coco is grown now and she has her own friends that she is honoring tickets for the match. Thank you for your continued support,” she concluded.The comment from Candi Gauff — who, along with her husband, Corey, have rallied behind their daughter’s tennis dreams since she was a child — was met with a number of witty replies, including one user who wrote, “She said GET OFF MY PHONE 😂,” and another who suggested, “Tell em to ask Mamdani 😂” (referring to the New York City mayor’s “affordable” ticket program).Former tennis player Ayan Broomfield, who is dating men’s star Frances Tiafoe, commented, “I wish captions could be retweeted 😂😂😂😂😂😂.”Gauff hopes to ride the wave of her Cincy success in New York this year, starting with her opening round singles match against Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez.Alcaraz, Djokovic, Sabalenka And Pegula: Here's Where The Stars Will Begin The 2026 U.S. OpenNEW YORK (AP) — Carlos Alcaraz will open the defense of his U.S. Open title against an opponent who made a strong run at Wimbledon while the Spaniard was sidelined with an injury.Alcaraz is the No. 2 seed and will face Roman Safiullin. It will be Alcaraz’s first singles match since April, after the two-time U.S. Open champion was forced to miss the French Open and Wimbledon because of a right wrist injury.Two-time defending women’s champion Aryna Sabalenka opens against Camila Osorio. The top-ranked Sabalenka, who has struggled during the North American hard-court season, could face Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova, the No. 6 seed, in the quarterfinals.Main draw play at the final Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season begins Sunday.Read more:Aryna Sabalenka Eyeing U.S. Open Three-PeatBENGALURU, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Aryna Sabalenka will attempt to become the first woman since Serena Williams to capture three consecutive titles at the U.S. Open, though a sharp dip in form has clouded what once looked like an inevitable march toward the milestone.Back-to-back titles forged by a powerful and precise game established the 28-year-old as the dominant force at Flushing Meadows, where no woman has enjoyed a comparable run since American great Williams won three in a row from 2012-14.Sabalenka looked poised to tighten her grip on the women’s game following hardcourt triumphs at Brisbane, Indian Wells and Miami but her momentum has suddenly stalled, with a 17-7 win-loss record since April underlining a loss of consistency.With Sabalenka’s world number one ranking under threat from Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, any stumble in New York could prove costly.The four-times Grand Slam champion is well aware she has a target on her back.“Everyone wants to beat you,” she said ahead of the Cincinnati Open tune-up event, where she lost in the round of 16 to Czech outsider Sara Bejlek.“It’s the same if you’re number one, number two, number 10. It doesn’t really matter what the ranking is ... I love having a target on my back.“I like to see the younger generation looking up to me and getting inspired by me. But they’re going to be inspired even if I drop in the rankings a bit. Hopefully it’ll never happen.“As long as I focus on developing myself as a player and a person, the ranking doesn’t really matter.”ESPN commentator Mary Joe Fernandez said Sabalenka’s title defense was on shaky ground.“She has not reached a final since winning Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back,” the former world number four said.“She struggled a bit winning the big points. She’s lost a couple big leads in some events. So she’s vulnerable.”Her downturn in form prompted tennis analyst Rick Macci to question whether Sabalenka was in the right frame of mind coming into the year’s final Grand Slam.“Right now Sabalenka is competing against herself,” Macci, who previously coached Williams in the early 1990s, posted on social media.“When an athlete does this you can still get a few wins but mentally your confidence spins. This year in New York it is the U.S. WIDE Open for the WTA as 15 different players could have the final say.”(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford )See All Updates