Once it was burgers, now it’s weed. The US Open has a new, unmistakeable smell
Players have complained about the smell, especially around Court 17
US Open 2023, weed | © Panoramic / Shutterstock / Tennis Majors
The US Open has always been famous for its sounds and its smells; from the noise and bustle of people moving, chatting, shouting and even fighting, to the smell of burgers and onion rings wafting in the air.
Now, it seems there is another, more pungent smell in the air. Weed.
Marijuana has been legal in New York since 2021 but though smoking of any kind is banned inside the grounds of Flushing Meadows, the unmistakeable smell has been drifting around the outside courts.
In particular, on court 17, one of the newer show courts on the extremities of the grounds, which back on to the public park, fertile ground, it seems for plenty of weed.
“It’s everywhere, literally everywhere,” Alexander Zverev told reporters. “Court 17 definitely smells like Snoop Dogg’s living room. Oh my God, it’s everywhere. The whole court smells like weed.”
Maria Sakkari was so put off by the smell she went and lost in the first round. OK, so it was not the only reason, and maybe not a reason at all, but the Greek was certainly affected by the smell.
“The smell, oh my gosh,” Sakkari said. “I think it’s from the park.”
“You don’t really think about it, because all you care is just to win the match,” Sakkari said. “I smelled it, but that was it. Like, it wasn’t something that I paid attention to.”
“Sometimes you smell food, sometimes you smell cigarettes, sometimes you smell weed,” Sakkari said. “I mean, it’s something we cannot control, because we’re in an open space. There’s a park behind. People can do whatever they want.”
Mike Tyson, weed millionaire
Weed has become big business. During the UTS Los Angeles, Nick Kyrgios told is fellow players about his recent podcast with Mike Tyson, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, who is now a millionaire from selling weed. “He was smoking all the way through,” Kyrgios said.
According to the AP, USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier said there was no evidence that anyone sitting in the stands on Court 17 was smoking.
Marketa Vondrousova, the Wimbledon champion, was another to experience it. “I smelled it when we warmed up,” she said. “Not so much in the match but I told my coach I could smell it.”
Zverev back on Court 17
Zverev is back on Court 17 on Thursday, first match on against another German, Daniel Altmaier.
With an 11am start, perhaps there won’t be quite so much weed flying around, but if Manhattan is anything to go on, where you can’t turn a corner without getting a whiff of the stuff, anything’s possible.
