New York's Aroma Distraction at the US Open for British Players
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.
For Britain’s players, the grass of Wimbledon was supposed to be a memory by late August. Instead, as they step out on to the outside courts at Flushing Meadows, they are hit by something else entirely drifting across from Corona Park: the thick, unmistakable aroma of marijuana.
In this city, it’s legal. Inside the grounds, it’s not. The line, though, is thin, and the breeze doesn’t care where the boundary is.
Katie Boulter, the British No 1, has smelt it often enough.
“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.”
Concentration at this level lives in the margins. A bad line call, a restless crowd, a flicker on the big screen – it all chips away. A cloud of weed drifting over a tense service game is just one more battle to fight.
Fran Jones has been here before and met it with gallows 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’.”
That was then. This year, her tone is sharper, the focus tighter.
“This year I’ll be like: ‘No, lock in, lock in!’”
Harriet Dart, who battled through qualifying alongside Jones, has adopted the shrug of a New Yorker.
“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 tournament organisers are well aware of the issue but have limited reach once the city takes over beyond the fences. The USTA said in a statement: “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.”
On court, the players have no such luxury. They adjust, complain, joke, or simply endure – but they still have to hit their serves, chase down drop shots and live with whatever the wind carries in.
Fery’s breakthrough as Duckworth retires
Away from New York’s haze, another British story unfolded more cleanly in North Carolina.
Arthur Fery has booked his place in a first ATP Tour final at the Winston-Salem Open, though not in the fashion he might have imagined. Leading 6-4, 1-2, the Briton saw his semi-final cut short when James Duckworth retired with an apparent right leg injury.
Fery had already seized control of the opening set, breaking the Australian at 4-4 and closing it out. The second set stayed on serve until Duckworth, struggling physically, called it a day.
The 21-year-old now stands one win from a maiden ATP title, but he will have to go through one of the tour’s fast risers to get it.
Waiting in Saturday’s final is Ignacio Buse, the Peruvian who edged past France’s Benjamin Bonzi 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. Buse sits one place above Fery in the rankings at No 36 and will arrive as the 32nd seed at the upcoming French Open.
Two young players, almost neck and neck in the standings, colliding for a first title in Winston-Salem. No distractions there. Just a hard court, a trophy, and a chance to change the shape of a season.
