While the official tag for the 2026 US Open is “Celebrating our New York Story,” the story doesn’t smell right at the moment at Flushing Meadows. With fans complaining about unpleasant odors at Arthur Ashe Stadium, former ATP Pros Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey highlighted another area that could be considered a hygiene violation.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
“There are far too many dogs. Far, far too many dogs on the grounds in the player’s area,” said Johnson on the podcast Nothing Major. “I’m a big dog guy, but my goodness, are there too many dogs. There are too many dogs, so you’re okay with the little dogs nipping at your heels while you’re trying to eat a sandwich up there?”
“They’re not. No one’s no dogs nipping at your heels. You’re just saying that,” John Isner began, before Querrey jumped in.
“They’re like pooping in the player area on the turf. You can never get poop off turf,” Querrey said on the podcast.
Isner was still not convinced, replying, “You’re making that stuff up. They’re not doing that. Have you seen a dog poop in the player area?”
“No, but I’ve heard,” Querrey answered.
As for “a dog nipping at heels,” Johnson added: “Yeah, dude. It’s been barking at me. I was eating lunch yesterday, and the dog’s like running up, barking at me. I don’t want that. Why would you bark? I don’t know which little designer dog from any of the women it is. And there’s also like a 110 lb husky floating around.”
Carrying their pet dogs with them often gives players a welcome distraction amid the intense pressure of the tennis calendar. Pet dogs are quite a recurring feature on Tour, with the likes of Marta Kostyuk, Jessica Pegula, and Aryna Sabalenka, among others, traveling with their pets.
Moreover, the US Open has recognized the affinity for dogs among top players, as the tournament organized a “Muddy Paws Puppy Days” program this year. The initiative saw the tournament bring in four rescued dogs and bring them into the Player Garden, where they mingled with some of the top stars of the sport, such as Coco Gauff and Leylah Fernandez, who stopped by the activation to spend time with the animals.
However, while Johnson and Querrey raised concerns about the number of dogs, at present, fans are more concerned about the reported smell of sewage and human waste at Arthur Ashe.
“When it smells like human waste, and the US Open has known about it for days, yet continues to allow people to sit in Section 310,” said a fan with the username @BaylorCarrots.
The content creator also blamed the US Open’s Guest Services for failing to improve the situation despite being aware of it. Section 310 is one of the highest levels at Arthur Ashe Stadium, and for fans to endure the smell at that vantage point is quite an ordeal and does not look good on the US Open’s part.
That said, the US Open has been notorious for other smells as well, with the likes of Aryna Sabalenka and Katie Boulter making their complaints known this year.
Aryna Sabalenka and others have complained about disturbing smells at the US Open
The smell of ca**abis has been a recurring complaint around the US Open’s outer courts, with smoke from nearby Flushing Meadows-Corona Park sometimes drifting into the tennis complex. This year it was Aryna Sabalenka who complained of the strong smell during her third-round match at Louis Armstrong Stadium. The USTA has said it cannot control smoking outside the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, although it maintains the tournament grounds as a smoke-free environment.
But not only Sabalenka but also Katie Boulter has complained about similar issues, which have proved to be a disturbance for players. Smells aside, the constant buzz across the grounds and the movement of people led Adrian Mannarino to claim: “You can smell mar**uana on the court, there’s noise everywhere, this is becoming a zoo. These are truly unusual conditions to play under.”
The US Open has already seen a major controversy over crowd behavior, after a group of content creators/influencers in a hospitality suite were seen using ring lights during Naomi Osaka’s first-round match.