Katie Boulter Addresses Cannabis Distraction at US Open

Katie Boulter has spent the week trying to tune up her game for the US Open. Instead, the British number one has found herself trying to block out something else entirely: the persistent smell of cannabis drifting across from the park next door.

Flushing Meadows opens its gates on Sunday for the final major of the season, in a city – and a state – where cannabis is legal for adults over 21. Smoking is not allowed on site at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, but the venue backs directly onto Corona Park. When the wind turns, the outside courts get a reminder.

Boulter, ranked 60 in the world and set to face American wildcard Carol Young Suh Lee in the first round, says the issue has become impossible to ignore on the practice courts.

"You can 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."

This is not a new New York quirk. The cannabis haze has become a recurring subplot at the US Open.

In 2022, Australian Open doubles champion Nick Kyrgios stopped during a match to complain that a fan smoking courtside was triggering his asthma, forcing the umpire to appeal to the crowd to stop. Last year, Maria Sakkari pointed out the smell to the chair during a set, though she later made clear it was not an excuse for her defeat.

The United States Tennis Association insists it is not turning a blind eye. The organisers say they work with local police and the parks department to clamp down on smoking along the site’s boundary.

"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," the USTA said in a statement.

For players, vigilance only goes so far when the wind carries the problem over the fence.

Britain’s Fran Jones, who came through qualifying on Friday and opens against Poland’s Magda Linette on Monday, recalled her own introduction to the New York atmosphere last year.

"Last year I made a joke about that, in my first round, and I said to the guy, 'is this normal?'" she said. "Because I was on the stadium, and it's next to the park. He's like, 'yeah'. And I was like: 'Well, no wonder I'm playing pretty well.'

"This year I'll be like 'no, lock in, lock in!'"

Harriet Dart, who beat compatriot Heather Watson in qualifying to earn a first-round meeting with American Peyton Stearns, has also noticed the ever-present scent around the grounds.

"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."

For Boulter, the stakes are clear. She arrives as Britain’s leading woman, looking to turn a solid season into a statement run on one of the sport’s biggest stages. The margins at this level are thin enough without an unwanted distraction swirling in the air.

In New York, though, it seems the smell of the city is one opponent no one can quite avoid.