Alcaraz marches on as Sabalenka halts US Open match due to ‘strong’ smell of marijuana

LAST UPDATE | 7 hrs ago

DEFENDING CHAMPION CARLOS Alcaraz reached the fourth round of the US Open with a straight-set victory over Wu Yibing and said he’s “getting there” after a four-month injury absence.

China’s Wu kept Alcaraz hopping with an aggressive baseline game, but Alcaraz came through 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 to line up a meeting with American Tommy Paul for a place in the quarter-finals.

Paul, seeded 20th, beat 15th-seeded Alexander Bublik 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (4/7), 6-1, 6-3.

Alcaraz won the Australian Open in January for his seventh Grand Slam title. But the 23-year-old arrived at Flushing Meadows having not played since April as he recovered from a wrist injury.

His lack of match play — and the pressure Wu applied — was evident in 33 unforced errors, the Spaniard showing plenty of frustration along with satisfaction over the course of the two hour and 20 minute contest.

“I think today there was a really high rhythm,” Alcaraz said. “The way he plays is unbelievable, the rhythm he has on every shot — forehand, backhand.

“His balls skid a lot on the court and, for me, it’s really difficult to control sometimes.

“But I think I stayed there. I played aggressive. I played smart in the toughest moments.”

Meanwhile, world number one Aryna Sabalenka called a halt to her third-round match at the US Open after complaining she could smell marijuana.

The two-time defending champion was 2-0 up and serving in the first set against Kamilla Rakhimova on Louis Armstrong Stadium.

She stopped abruptly and spoke to her team before approaching the umpire’s chair.

“Someone is smoking weed,” she told umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore. “Would you mind to… because it’s so strong.”

Asderaki-Moore spoke to an official on her radio and turned to someone else behind her, making a smoking gesture with her fingers, before play continued.

The smell of weed around Flushing Meadows has been an issue this week but has broadly been confined to the outside courts, close to nearby Corona Park.

Smoking of any kind is prohibited on the site itself. The United States Tennis Association has been approached for comment.

Sabalenka eventually out-gunned Rakhimova 6-3, 6-4 to lead the way into the US Open round of 16 on Friday.

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The world number one from Belarus fired 29 winners, with 10 aces, and didn’t face a break point, but that didn’t tell the entire tale of a match that saw 92nd-ranked Rakhimova push Sabalenka hard in a second-set slugfest.

“She played incredible tennis; she really pushed me so hard in the second set,” Sabalenka said. “I’m super happy that I was able to close this match in straight sets because she’s a fighter.”

Sabalenka, whose world number one ranking is under threat in New York, got off to a strong start, breaking Rakhimova in her first service game and holding her own serve with ease.

Sabalenka didn’t miss a first serve until the seventh game of the contest, pocketing the first set in 35 minutes.

But Uzbekistan’s Rakhimova dialled up the power in the second set, which featured mammoth service holds from each player before Sabalenka gained the crucial break for a 5-4 lead.

Sabalenka, who must repeat as champion to have a chance of remaining number one, next faces either 15th-seeded Russian Diana Shnaider or 96th-ranked American Taylor Townsend.

Shnaider knocked Sabalenka out of the quarter-finals at Roland Garros in June.

Sabalenka hasn’t won a title since her impressive Indian Wells-Miami double in March.

As she tries to join Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova as the only women to win three straight US Open titles, she’s trying to tune out expectations – positive and negative.

“I completely shut down the noise from outside,” she said. “I’m trying to focus on myself. I know if I’m focused on myself, if I’m pushing myself really hard, I know I will have my chances on court.”

Third-seeded American Jessica Pegula, one of the players with a chance to knock Sabalenka off her No. 1 perch, mounted a desperate fightback to beat Canadian Leylah Fernandez 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a battle of former finalists.

Pegula struggled early with the varied spin and speeds of the Canadian lefty’s serve.

“I never feel comfortable playing her,” Pegula said. “I’m really glad I was able to find something there, especially in the second set to turn things around.

In other early matches, Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk beat Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 6-2 and Romanian veteran Sorana Cirstea beat Italy’s Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-3.

The night session features the return to Ashe of a US tennis great as 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams teams up with sister Venus in doubles, taking on the 14th-seeded duo of Chan Hao-ching and Maya Joint.

Venus and Serena won two of their 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together at the US Open, where they first competed in 1997.

Their first doubles appearance together in a major since the 2022 US Open comes after 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena returned from almost four years away from professional tennis to play at Wimbledon.

A knee injury in her first-round defeat — to Australia’s Joint — scuppered plans for the sisters to play doubles at Wimbledon.

Additional reporting by AFP