There are certain US Open traditions you can count on: matches ending sometime around breakfast, New York roaring in the background, somebody arguing with a chair umpire, plus the increasingly unmistakable smell of cannabis drifting toward the courts, like someone just cracked open Snoop Dogg’s laundry bag.
This year, apparently, the cloud is back in force.
British player Francesca “Fran” Jones described one recent day as “one of the worst” she had experienced when it came to cannabis smoke drifting onto the courts from Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, the sprawling public park surrounding the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Asked whether it affected her during a 6-4, 6-1 win over Laura Garland, Jones delivered exactly the kind of answer headline writers dream of: “Well, sometimes, you know … when I’m hallucinating! No, I had a wee giggle to myself, and then I was, like, ‘OK, back to the point.’”
To be clear, Jones was not claiming that secondhand weed smoke had actually made her hallucinate. She was joking. The smell, however, was apparently very real. And pretty damn noticeable.
‘It Takes You Out of the Moment’
Katie Boulter was considerably less amused.
“Down in the park courts, you do smell it [cannabis] a lot,” the British player said, adding that multiple players have complained about specific courts.
Boulter recalled playing on Court 17, one of the courts closest to the park and by now something of a recurring character in this story. “I’m trying to focus and then it takes you out of the moment when you really don’t need distractions,” she said. “So yeah, I wasn’t a huge fan of it.”
Jones, who grew up and developed as a tennis player in Barcelona, knows Court 17’s reputation well. She recalled asking the chair umpire about …
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Author: Natalia Kesselman / High Times
