Aryna Sabalenka was not happy about her third-round match at the US Open suddenly turning into a scene from “Half Baked.”
The world No. 1-ranked women’s tennis star Sabalenka faced off on Friday against Kamilla Rakhimova during US Open play at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, N.Y. After going 2-0 up in the first set of the match, Sabalenka interrupted her serve to complain to umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore about the smell of marijuana in the stadium.
Sabalenka was shown on the television broadcast telling Asderaki-Moore that “someone is smoking weed,” adding that the smell was “so strong.” Here is the video.
World's #1 women's tennis player Aryna Sabalenka had to alert the umpire that someone in the crowd was smoking very potent marijuana pic.twitter.com/btjoJq9ows
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) September 4, 2026
Ultimately, Sabalenka would defeat Rakhimova in straight sets (6-3, 6-4) to advance to the Round of 16. But after the match, Sabalenka spoke out on the incident.
“I don’t know if it was, like, coming from the crowd or was from the outside because the wind blows it into the stadium,” Sabalenka said, per ESPN. “I don’t know. I just hope they’re going to be a bit more aware of that stuff.
“I was like, guys, you can do whatever, you can smoke whatever, you can relax as much as you can, but please, to not do it around the tennis courts,”added Sabalenka. “It’s a bit tricky to handle that smell while you’re trying to compete at your best.”
The 28-year-old Sabalenka is looking to bounce back in her first major appearance since flaming out of Wimbledon in July (and joking afterwards that she wanted to get hammered drunk). But on Friday, it turns out that somebody else was trying to partake in intoxicants as well … right in the middle of Sabalenka’s match.
