Aryna Sabalenka Dominates While Calling Out Cannabis Smell at US Open
Aryna Sabalenka barely gave Kamilla Rakhimova a look-in on the scoreboard. What grabbed the attention instead was her nose.
The top seed marched into the fourth round of the US Open in New York with a controlled 6–3, 6–4 win at Louis Armstrong Stadium, never facing a single break point. Yet in the middle of her routine victory, the Belarusian halted play to complain to the chair umpire about a strong smell of cannabis drifting through the arena.
She made her point clearly: she had no issue with people relaxing, but not next to a Grand Slam court. The smell, she said, makes it hard to concentrate when the margins are this thin.
Smoking is banned on the US Open grounds, but recreational cannabis is legal in New York, and smoke from Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, which wraps around the tennis complex, can easily drift into the stands and across the courts. On this night, it did.
The distraction never reached her racket. Sabalenka stayed sharp on serve, locked in from the baseline, and moved through without allowing Rakhimova a single chance to break. The scoreline reflected the gap in class, not the brief disruption.
Next Match
Next up for Sabalenka is American Taylor Townsend, a crowd favourite with a bold, attacking game. Townsend earned her shot at the top seed with a gritty three-set win over Diana Shnaider, 6–2, 6–7 (3–7), 6–3, and will bring far more firepower – and far more noise – to the court.
Carlos Alcaraz Returns
On the men’s side, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz looked as if his four-month layoff never happened.
Back from a wrist injury and still feeling his way into the tournament, the Spaniard dismantled Wu Yibing 6–3, 6–4, 6–1, a performance that grew in authority with every game. He arrived in New York short on competitive rhythm; he now looks like he’s finding it quickly.
Alcaraz has spoken about feeling better with each match and being surprised by the speed of his recovery. His tennis is starting to match that optimism. The forehand was heavy, the movement elastic again, and once he broke Wu’s resistance early in the second set, the contest slid firmly his way.
The reward is a compelling clash with 20th seed Tommy Paul, a player with the tools and temperament to test both that wrist and the champion’s patience.
Medvedev, Tiafoe, and Shelton
Daniil Medvedev, a former champion in New York, delivered a textbook three-set win over Arthur Rinderknech, 6–4, 6–4, 6–4. No drama, no detours. Just the familiar pattern: deep returns, suffocating rallies, and scoreboard pressure that never let up.
Frances Tiafoe, seeded 11th, fed off the energy of the home crowd to move past Valentin Vacherot 6–4, 6–2, 6–4. Tiafoe’s mix of flair and power kept Vacherot on the back foot, and once the American tightened his first-serve numbers, the result felt inevitable.
Ben Shelton had to work harder. In a match that swung sharply across the first two sets, he edged Denis Shapovalov 7–6 (7–3), 6–7 (5–7), 6–3, 6–4. Shelton’s serve again did the heavy lifting, and when the tiebreaks were split, he raised his level while Shapovalov’s errors crept in. The young American continues to build on last year’s breakthrough in New York, one booming left-handed delivery at a time.
Mixed Fortunes for Ukraine’s Leading Women
For Ukraine, the day carried both promise and disappointment.
Eleventh seed Marta Kostyuk delivered one of the cleaner performances of the round, sweeping past Ekaterina Alexandrova 6–3, 6–2. She dictated with depth and angles, refused to let Alexandrova settle into her flat hitting, and closed the door quickly once she got in front.
Kostyuk now faces Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova, a step up in both pedigree and pressure. It is the kind of match that can redefine a fortnight.
Elina Svitolina, though, saw her run end. In a stop-start contest, she fell 3–6, 6–2, 3–6 to Anna Kalinskaya. Svitolina rallied strongly in the second set, looked to have reset the terms of the match, then watched Kalinskaya seize back control in the decider with cleaner hitting and more aggressive court positioning.
New York rarely allows a quiet day at a major. On this one, it brought a cannabis cloud over Sabalenka’s court, a champion returning to form in Alcaraz, and a field beginning to separate into genuine contenders and those just passing through. The next rounds will decide who belongs in which group.
