British Players at the US Open Complain About Marijuana Smell Drifting From Nearby Corona Park

The smell of marijuana from nearby Corona Park has been drifting over the outside courts at Flushing Meadows, and British players at the 2026 US Open are not happy about it.

Katie Boulter, Britain's No 1 player, said she caught the scent on the practice courts and the park courts — the outer match courts at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, which sits beside the public park. Boulter said many players had complained about the smell on specific courts. The Guardian reported her remarks on 29 August.

One court has attracted a nickname. Court 17, a sunken show court popular with fans, has been dubbed the "hash court" because of the recurring smell around it, according to the Daily Mail.

Fran Jones, Britain's No 3, took it in her stride. She recalled joking about the same smell during her first-round match at the US Open the previous year. Harriet Dart, who came through qualifying — the pre-tournament rounds where lower-ranked players compete for a spot in the main draw — was blunter. The smell is everywhere in New York, she said. "It is what it is."

Marijuana is legal for adults in New York state. Smoking of any kind is not permitted on the US Open site itself. But the source of the smell is Corona Park, which surrounds the tennis centre, and the United States Tennis Association (USTA) says it cannot control what happens off its grounds. A USTA spokesperson said the organisation "continues to be vigilant" about the issue.

This is not the first time a major sporting event in the United States has dealt with the problem. Formula 1 drivers complained about marijuana smoke during the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix, where the odour reached inside a closed venue — an unusual occurrence for such a setting.

Away from the whiff, there was good news for British tennis this week. Arthur Fery reached his first ATP Tour final — the top level of men's professional tennis — at the Winston-Salem Open in North Carolina, after his semi-final opponent, James Duckworth, retired injured. Fery was set to face Peru's Ignacio Buse in the final.

Fery, 23, was also preparing for his main-draw US Open debut, with a first-round match against world No 14 Lorenzo Musetti — a formidable assignment against one of the tournament's seeded players.

The US Open, the fourth and final Grand Slam of the tennis year, runs through mid-September. Whether the air clears before the second week is another matter entirely.