Aryna Sabalenka certainly knows how to turn a major heartbreak into a success story. Despite being the defending champion at the US Open, Sabalenka had to walk into an almost empty Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City to battle against Rebeka Masarova in the first round. But Sabalenka didn’t let that worry her too much. Following the match, she made sure to be honest about how she felt in round 1. 

The Belarusian managed to secure a win over Masarova with a score of 7-5, 6-1. And following her victory, Aryna Sabalenka shared a few pictures from her game against Masarova. And instead of putting her mind on the empty seats, she decided to focus on the fans cheering her on. In the caption, she wrote, “NYC, thank you for the warm welcome. I’m so happy to be back on this court, you gave me goosebumps ♥️.” 

It’s pretty clear how Sabalenka felt at Arthur Ashe Stadium. One picture that she shared included visuals of her interacting with the fans and signing their accessories. But we can also see a lot of empty seats in the same picture. So, we also decided to give the pages of Ticketmaster a check. And you won’t believe what we found…  About 55% of the seats lay vacant. The reason? Many believe that it’s because of the high ticket prices, with even the cheapest tickets costing $135. But if the tickets had cost less than that, would the stadium have had better attendance? That’s some food for thought.

For now, Aryna Sabalenka was happy with her performance and the cheers that the rest of the seats offered her. But what do you think of the mess up? Well, the #1 WTA star would have definitely loved it! After all, she was pretty vocal about the disappointing attendance at the French Open.

When Aryna Sabalenka took a stand, demanding equal treatment

Following her quarterfinal win over Zheng Qinwen at Roland-Garros, Aryna Sabalenka claimed, “It was a big match and probably would make more sense to put us a little bit later just so more people could watch it. I definitely think that would make more sense to kind of like move our match for a little bit later.” Many of the seats in the 15,000 capacity Court Philippe-Chatrier were empty when the match began at 11 am (local time). It was hardly surprising, considering how most people go for lunch or come in later in the day.

And her reasons aligned with the poor scheduling of the sessions for women.She didn’t hold back when asked about her thoughts on how no women’s matches had been scheduled for the night till that point, demanding “equal treatment.” She stated, “There was a lot of … great battles, a lot of great matches which would be cool to see as night sessions. Just more people in the stands watching these incredible battles. And just to show ourselves to more people. I definitely agree that we deserve to be put on a bigger stage. Like better timing, more people watching.” 

But what about Round 1 of the 2025 US Open? The session began at 7 pm ET, and yet, the Arthur Ashe Stadium was almost empty. Nevertheless, we can always hope for the stadiums to be fuller in the upcoming sessions. To stay updated on everything going on at the US Open, follow EssentiallySports’ minute-by-minute live blog.