Aryna Sabalenka Advances Amidst Unique Challenges at US Open
Aryna Sabalenka has dealt with pressure, wind, hostile questions and world‑class opponents. On Saturday in New York, she added something else to the list: the smell of weed drifting across a Grand Slam court.
The two-time defending US Open champion paused mid-game on Louis Armstrong Stadium, already leading Kamilla Rakhimova 3-0, and walked toward chair umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore with a wry smile.
“Someone is smoking weed, do you mind … because it’s so strong,” she said, half-laughing, half-exasperated.
Play resumed, the smell lingered, and Sabalenka did what she usually does in New York: she won. Comfortably. The Belarusian moved into the last 16 without dropping a set, beating Rakhimova 6-3, 6-4 behind a ruthless serving display that sent a clear message in a tournament where her ranking and aura are both on the line.
Weed in the wind, steel in the game
Cannabis is legal in New York, and anyone who has walked around Flushing Meadows in recent years knows the scent hangs in the air as reliably as the late-summer humidity. Players have mentioned it before. Sabalenka, though, said this was on another level.
“That strong, yeah,” she said later, still amused but clearly unimpressed. With the wind swirling, she admitted she had no idea where it was coming from — the crowd, the park outside, somewhere beyond the stadium — only that it was “a bit tricky to handle that smell while you’re trying to compete at your best.”
“I was, like, Guys, you can do whatever, you can smoke whatever, you can relax as much as you can, but please, do not do it around the tennis courts,” she added. “I just hope they’re going to be a bit more aware of that stuff.”
If the conditions were distracting, her tennis never flinched. Sabalenka hammered down 10 aces, faced not a single break point and kept Rakhimova at arm’s length throughout. For a player who arrived in New York in her shakiest form in years, it felt like a step back toward her brutal best.
She has not reached a final since that dazzling Indian Wells–Miami double in March. Her forehand has misfired, her confidence has dipped, and the No 1 ranking she has owned for 97 weeks now hangs by a thread. She must win a third straight US Open title and hope world No 2 Elena Rybakina falls before the semi-finals to stay on top.
For now, she has done what she can: three rounds, three straight-sets wins, and a serve that looks like a weapon again.
Fire on court, fire in the press room
If Sabalenka’s tennis has steadied, her patience off court has been tested. After a dominant second-round win over Polina Iatcenko, she bristled at a line of questioning that suggested her pre-tournament days in New York were about “parties and fun”.
This was the second time in the week a reporter had framed her build-up in that way. Sabalenka did not let it slide.
“You guys are, like, a joke,” she shot back. “‘Parties, fun …’ like, why would you even say that? Why would you even think about that? What kind of question is that? Just because I posted, like, some activities with brands, and you think that I’ve been partying, not training?”
The exchange dragged on, tense and pointed, before she cut it off with a final rebuke: “Think before you say stuff.”
It was a glimpse of the strain she carries here: the expectation to dominate, the scrutiny of every off-court move, the knowledge that anything less than another deep run will cost her the No 1 spot. On court, she has looked increasingly in control. With a microphone in front of her, she has made it clear she is in no mood to have her professionalism questioned.
Townsend test up next
The reward for her clean progress is a very different challenge in the fourth round: Taylor Townsend, a home favourite with a game that can scramble any opponent’s rhythm and a crowd that will roar for every point.
Townsend backed up last year’s run to the second week with another surge through the draw, beating 15th seed Diana Shnaider 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-3. Her variety, net instincts and willingness to take the ball early will ask questions Rakhimova could not.
Sabalenka, though, comes into that match with numbers that matter: zero breaks faced so far, a serve purring, and the knowledge that she knows how to play with a target on her back in New York. She has done it for two years.
Medvedev and Alcaraz move in sync
On the men’s side, two champions of recent years moved in quietly ominous fashion.
Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 US Open winner, eased into the fourth round with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over 29th seed Arthur Rinderknech. It was classic Medvedev in New York: economical, relentless, no drama. He soaked up pace, redirected it, and shut down the Frenchman’s hopes without ever needing to hit top gear.
Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion, offered something different: turbulence, then a surge. Playing just his third match back after a four-and-a-half month layoff with a right wrist injury, he beat Wu Yibing 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, a scoreline that hid some tight early passages.
He had to think his way through the first two sets, hold his nerve under pressure, and trust a body that has not been fully tested since April. When the key points arrived, he rose. By the third set, he was flying.
“To be honest, I’m better than I thought,” Alcaraz said. “Physically, I thought I was going to be bad after the first match but I’m recovering really well, I’m doing great things off the court to be in a good shape and right now I think my level is good. I’ve got the rhythm of the competition. Every time I step on to the court, I give it my all.”
Next comes 20th seed Tommy Paul, an American who dragged himself past 15th seed Alexander Bublik in five sets: 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-3. Paul’s athleticism and willingness to take the ball early have troubled Alcaraz before. This time, the Spaniard arrives still building, still testing that wrist, but already looking like a man who expects to be around at the business end.
Sabalenka, Medvedev, Alcaraz. All through, all gathering speed, each with a different kind of tension riding on their shoulders. In a city that smells of late summer, street food and, yes, cannabis drifting on the breeze, the tennis is sharpening into something far more serious.
