Arthur Ashe Stadium was the site of a protest on Thursday night, and the first U.S. Open women’s semifinal between Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova was delayed for nearly an hour mid-match due to protestors in the stands disrupting play.
Almost exactly one hour into the match, three protestors stood up during play and began chanting “end fossil fuels,” but while two were quickly ejected by NYPD and security, the third was unable to be immediately removed, as they had glued their feet to the stadium floor.
“As we witnessed, three protestors disrupted play; two were removed, but security found one of the protestors had glued their bare feet to the stadium floor, so we had to find a way to remove them safely,” tournament director Stacy Allaster told Pam Shriver during ESPN’s broadcast.
Gauff and Muchova were led off the court at approximately 8:05 p.m. with Gauff up 6-4, 1-0 in the second set. They went back to the locker room area to wait out the delay and returned to the court at 8:50 p.m. to a raucous ovation from the crowd.
Play resumed after a five-minute warm-up, with a total time of just under 50 minutes between points.
The sixth-seeded Gauff and tenth-seeded Muchova are vying for a spot in Saturday’s women’s final, the winner to play the winner of the second semifinal later Thursday night between No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka and American Madison Keys, the No. 17 seed.