Sabalenka Powers into US Open Last 16 Despite Cannabis Distraction

Aryna Sabalenka paused, wrinkled her nose and walked towards the chair umpire. Three games into her US Open third-round match, the world’s top seed was not complaining about the balls, the lights or the crowd.

“Someone is smoking weed,” she told Eva Asderaki-Moore. “Because it’s so strong.”

For a brief moment on Louis Armstrong Stadium, the tennis stopped and the smell took over. Asderaki-Moore radioed an official and gestured towards the stands, a clear message to whoever was lighting up beyond the baseline. Then, with the issue acknowledged but hardly solved, Sabalenka went back to work.

From there, she was ruthless.

The two-time defending champion brushed aside Kamilla Rakhimova 6-3 6-4 to march into the fourth round in New York, extending her winning streak at Flushing Meadows to 16 matches. She is now edging closer to a slice of history: no woman has won three straight US Open singles titles since Serena Williams dominated from 2012 to 2014.

Sabalenka played like someone intent on changing that.

She ripped through the opening set, dictating from the first strike and allowing Rakhimova almost no daylight on return. The Belarusian dropped just four points on serve in that set, her delivery landing with the kind of heavy, unanswerable precision that has become her trademark. When the first serve found its mark, the rallies rarely lasted long.

Rakhimova, representing Uzbekistan, tried to hang on in the second. She dug in, held serve under pressure and began to land more first strikes of her own. The match tightened. The rallies lengthened. For a few games, Sabalenka had to grind rather than simply blast through.

The pressure finally told at 4-4.

Sabalenka pounced for the decisive break, stepping inside the baseline and unloading off both wings to move 5-4 ahead. Serving for the match, she did not flinch. No nerves, no let-up, no way back for Rakhimova.

The numbers underlined the gulf. Sabalenka fired 10 aces to Rakhimova’s two and did not face a single break point all afternoon. On a day when the atmosphere was hazy, her tennis was anything but.

The cannabis issue, though, is becoming a recurring subplot in New York. Sabalenka is only the latest player to complain about the smell drifting across the courts from nearby Corona Park, where smoking is legal for adults aged 21 and over. Britain’s Katie Boulter said last week it was distracting. Harriet Dart and Francesca Jones noticed it too. In previous years, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev have also voiced their irritation.

Smoking is not allowed on site at Flushing Meadows, yet the sweet, unmistakable scent keeps finding its way into the stadiums. On Armstrong, it briefly cut through the usual cocktail of hot dogs, popcorn and tension.

Sabalenka, though, refused to let it derail her.

At 28, she is playing with the assurance of a serial champion, brushing aside distractions and opponents with equal disdain. The power remains her calling card, but there is a new layer of control to go with it, a sense that she now knows exactly when to swing for the lines and when to tighten the screws.

Next, she will face either American Taylor Townsend or Russian 15th seed Diana Shnaider, the latter having beaten her in the French Open quarter-finals in June. That defeat still lingers in the background, an unresolved chapter.

On this evidence, Sabalenka looks eager to rewrite it under the New York lights.