Adrian Mannarino has been playing Grand Slam tennis for nearly two decades and knows when something feels different, and he made it clear this year’s US Open crosses that line. The 38-year-old Frenchman did not hold back when describing the atmosphere at Flushing Meadows this fortnight, calling out the amount of movement and noise tolerated inside the stadiums during play.
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“Now people are allowed to move around in the stands during points,” Mannarino said. “Before, people weren’t allowed to enter the court except during side changes. Now they come in any which way, they move around, they talk. It’s the tournament that tolerates this, and I don’t know if it’s the best idea for the game in general.”
“You can smell w**d on the court, there’s noise coming from everywhere, it’s becoming a bit of a zoo, really. These are some really particular playing conditions,” he added.
He is not alone in raising the weed complaint in particular. British No. 1 Katie Boulter said the smell of ca***bis drifting in from neighboring Corona Park was a distraction she would like to get rid of, and that she smelled it during the practice sessions at the USTA tennis center. Casper Ruud took it even further, saying that it was “the worst thing in New York” and “quite annoying” to play through while exhausted.
There’s a list of players who have previously complained about the same in the past, including Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Nick Kyrgios, Maria Sakkari, and Jelena Ostapenko. Despite persistent complaints, USTA has been unable to resolve the issue as the odor originates from the outside tournament grounds where ca***bis is legal.
The movement and noise Mannarino described is not confined to complaints either. On Monday night, chair umpire Kader Nouni was forced to halt Naomi Osaka’s first-round match against Anastasia Zakharova to address a corporate suite where a group had staged an impromptu photoshoot with ring lights mid-point.
The USTA later clarified that such interventions are now part of how the tournament is run and the chair umpires have the authority to address the crowd when those disruptions are interfering with play on court or disturbing the players, “similar to when crowd noise gets to a certain level.” It is a conscious change the tournament made in 2024, casting aside the old rule that limited the movement of fans to changeovers. This new rule is termed fan-free movement, a less stringent standard than either Wimbledon or Roland Garros.
While expressing his frustration, the world No. 67 produced a dramatic comeback in the first round against Argentina’s Thiago Tirante. He lost the first two sets and then went on to win the match in five sets, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. His dreamy first-round comeback was stopped by 15th seed Alexander Bublik in the second round, as he defeated Mannarino in straight sets.
His Grand Slam campaign has ended, but the raucous New York crowd will continue to attend for the next 10 days at the US Open.