Top gamers on the US Open are in a stink because the scent of weed has been wafting by way of the outside courts of the US Open prompting officers to analyze.
While the precise supply of the scent remained a thriller Tuesday, one factor was clear: Court 17, the place eighth-seeded Maria Sakkari complained about an amazing whiff of pot throughout her first-round loss, has grow to be infamous amongst gamers in recent times for its distinctive, unmistakable odor.
“Court 17 definitely smells like Snoop Dogg’s living room,” mentioned Alexander Zverev, the match’s Twelfth-seeded man who received his opening match on the courtroom Tuesday. “Oh my God, it’s everywhere. The whole court smells like weed.”
Stung by tales within the wake of Sakkari’s match Monday that made it seem the U.S. Open’s stands are the sporting equal of a Phish live performance, the United States Tennis Association performed its personal investigation, of kinds, to weed out the supply of the scent.
Spokesman Chris Widmaier mentioned the USTA questioned officers and reviewed video of the noon match and located “no evidence” anybody was smoking pot within the stands of Court 17, resulting in hypothesis it might have come from Corona Park simply outdoors the gates of the intimate stadium courtroom.
And he will not be simply blowing smoke. Sakkari herself urged simply that when she complained to the chair umpire whereas up 4-1 within the first set: “The smell, oh my gosh. I think it’s from the park.”
After her 6-4, 6-4 loss to Rebeka Masarova, Sakkari informed reporters: “Sometimes you smell food, sometimes you smell cigarettes, sometimes you smell weed. I mean, it’s something we cannot control, because we’re in an open space. There’s a park behind. People can do whatever they want.”
Flushing Meadows safety staffer Ricardo Rojas, who was working the gate outdoors Court 17 on Monday, mentioned he took a break within the park across the time of Sakkari’s match and “there was definitely a pot smell going on.” But he famous that whereas he enforces a strict no-smoking coverage contained in the USTA’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the park is “outside my jurisdiction.”
It’s authorized in New York for adults 21 and older to own as much as three ounces of hashish and as much as 24 grams of concentrated hashish for private use, and so they could smoke or vape hashish wherever smoking tobacco is allowed.
Adam Placzek, who attended Monday’s match on Court 17 with two mates from Hartford, Connecticut, mentioned he smelled pot however didn’t see anybody within the stands it might have been coming from. He admits he “partakes from time to time” however by no means would dream of lighting up on the U.S. Open.
“My boss heard about the pot story at the U.S. Open and texted me,” Placzek mentioned. “We told him we were there and he was like, ’Well that explains the smell!“’
Other players in past years have complained about the pot smells emanating from Court 17, a 2,500-seat arena that opened in 2011 in the extreme southwest corner of the complex with little buffer to the park.
Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, who easily won her match on Court 17 on Tuesday, told a similar story: “I smelled it actually today also. You smell it a lot. I think it’s just Court 17. That court is so far away, it’s almost in the park. I think it’s coming from the park.”
Sakkari, a semifinalist on the U.S. Open two years in the past, mentioned the scent didn’t have an effect on her whereas taking part in. Still, some followers at Flushing Meadows had little endurance for the notion {that a} prime participant could be thrown off mentally by the scent of pot.
“It’s New York. It’s everywhere,” fan Diane Patrizio of Southampton, New York, mentioned as she stood in line to enter Court 17. “But what are you going to do?
“There’s so many distractions at the U.S. Open. To hone in on that one thing and let that rattle you? You just can’t do that,” she mentioned.
Security staffer Rojas mentioned hashish odors have grow to be an inescapable reality of life. “Turn every corner and you smell it. It’s part of our world now. You’ve got to get used to it.”
So what would he inform Sakkari or another participant who complains about pot throughout a world-class competitors?
“Try it. … It might help you relax.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
