New York's Cannabis Aroma Disrupts British Players at US Open
The smell of New York is getting under Britain’s skin at the US Open – and it’s not the hot dogs or street carts causing the stir.
As the British contingent settle into Flushing Meadows, they’ve discovered that, for all the talk of hard courts and humidity, there is still one lingering reminder of summer on grass: the unmistakable waft of marijuana drifting across from Corona Park.
Cannabis is legal for adults in New York, and while smoking is banned inside the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the outside courts sit close enough to the park for the smell to seep into the action. For some players, it’s become an unwanted extra opponent.
Katie Boulter, the British No 1, has noticed it more than once.
“You go down to the practice courts and down in the park courts, you do smell it a lot,” she said. “I’m not a huge fan of it. I know a lot of players have complained on some of the specific courts.
“I’ve played on one before and I did smell it during my match. It’s something that I wouldn’t like to smell in the middle of my match. I’m trying to focus and then obviously, it takes you out of the moment and you really don’t want to. You don’t need distractions. So yeah, I wasn’t a huge fan of it.”
For players trying to thread the needle on a second serve at break point, the distraction is real. The outside courts are tight, the atmosphere raw, the noise constant. Add in the haze from the park and concentration can fray.
Fran Jones met it with a different kind of response: humour.
“Last year I made a joke about that, in my first round, and I said to the guy: ‘Is this normal?’” the British No 3 recalled. “Because I was on the stadium, and it’s next to the park. He’s like: ‘Yeah’. And I was: ‘Well, no wonder I’m playing pretty well’.
“This year I’ll be like: ‘No, lock in, lock in!’”
Jones isn’t alone in shrugging and getting on with it. For Harriet Dart, who battled through qualifying alongside Jones, this is simply New York in full, unfiltered flow.
“I mean it’s New York. It’s New York,” she said. “I feel like everywhere you walk around, it’s everywhere, no? It is what it is. Same for everyone.”
The USTA, caught between city law and tournament control, made its stance clear.
“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,” it said in a statement, underlining that smoking on site remains prohibited.
The message is blunt: what happens in Corona Park stays in Corona Park – at least as far as the rules are concerned. The smell is another matter.
Fery handed first ATP final as Duckworth retires
Away from New York’s haze, a significant breakthrough for British tennis arrived in North Carolina.
Arthur Fery reached the first ATP Tour final of his career at the Winston-Salem Open, although not in the way he would have imagined. Leading 6-4, 1-2 in his semi-final, the Briton advanced when James Duckworth retired with an apparent right leg injury.
Fery had already done the hard work in the opening set, breaking the Australian at 4-4 and serving it out. The second set stayed on serve until Duckworth, struggling physically, called it a day.
For Fery, a Wimbledon semi-finalist and one of the most intriguing British prospects on tour, it still marks a serious step forward: a first shot at an ATP title and a chance to test himself against a rising name.
Waiting in the final is Ignacio Buse, the Peruvian who edged past France’s Benjamin Bonzi 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 in the other semi-final. Buse sits one place above Fery in the world rankings at No 36 and will arrive as the higher seed and the man already slotted in as the 32nd seed at the upcoming French Open.
The rankings say there’s barely anything between them. The final will decide who takes the next jump.
