US Open women’s match interrupted by climate protest

NEW YORK — The U.S. Open semifinal women’s match between Coco Gauff, from the United States, and Karolina Muchova, from the Czech Republic, was delayed Thursday during the second set because of a disruption from environmental activists, according to The Associated Press.

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The delay lasted over 40 minutes as the protest took place in the upper levels of the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, according to The New York Times.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, officials with U.S. Open Tennis said that the New York Police Department was working to resolve “a fan disturbance” and said that play would resume as soon as possible.

Security confronted the protestors, who were wearing shirts that said, “End Fossil Fuels,” according to the AP. Three people were escorted from the area, though one took longer to remove because he stuck his feet to the ground.

“As we witnessed we had environment protesters up in the loge area,” the tournament director, Stacey Allaster, told ESPN in a courtside interview, according to the Times. “There were three. Two were removed. They quietly left. When security got there they found one of the protesters had physically glued himself, his bare feet, to the cement floor.”

Gauff was ahead 6-4, 1-0 when play was stopped early in the set, according to the AP. Both she and Muchova left the court during the incident, the Times reported.

At around 8:50 p.m. EDT, Gauff and Muchova both returned to the court to warm up, the newspaper reported.

Gauff, 19, and Muchova. 27, both played the semifinals at Flushing Meadows for the first time, according to the AP.

Gauff beat Muchova 6-4, 7-5, the AP reported.

Gauff and Muchova’s match was the first of the evening. According to the AP, the other women’s semifinal is between Aryna Sabalenka, from Belarus, and Madison Keys, from the United States. Gauff will play the winner for the women’s singles championship on Saturday in Ashe.

Last month, at a U.S. Open tune-up tournament in Washington, a similar incident took place and about a dozen people were asked to leave the site, the AP reported.