Three protesters derailed the U.S. Open semifinal between American sensation Coco Gauff and her Czech opponent Karolina Muchova on Thursday night, at one point prompting a frustrated crowd to chant “kick them out.” And Gauff said she predicted it all.
The protesters, who had environmental messages written on their shirts, started shouting from the bleachers in the middle of the first game of the second set. Security officials removed two of them promptly but the situation dragged on as the third protester refused to budge and NYPD officers were called in.
U.S. Tennis Association chief executive Stacey Allaster told ESPN that the third protester had “physically glued themselves in their bare feet to the cement floor.”
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“There’s no doubt in a 24,000-seat stadium people get ideas. We know environmental protesters use the platform [of events like this]. Certainly security will be resuming—along with law enforcement—to see what we can do to prevent it in the future.”
A statement from the Tennis Association later confirmed 49 minutes elapsed before play resumed and that the protester had glued themselves to “the floor of the seating bowl.” All three protesters were taken into NYPD custody. The man who glued himself in place, 50-year-old Sayak Mukhopadhyay, was later charged with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, and 35-year-old Gregory Schwedock was charged with criminal trespass.
ESPN’s courtside microphones picked up Gauff, who had won the first set, complaining to her coaches. “They said they’re on the phone negotiating… like this is a hostage situation,” she fumed. With the chaos still not resolved after 20 minutes, Gauff and Muchova left the court shortly before 8:30 p.m.
Gauff eventually took home the win in straight sets 6-4, 7-5, becoming the youngest American to make it to a U.S. Open final since Serena Williams.
“I grew up watching this tournament so much, so it means a lot to be in the final. But the job is not done,” Gauff said after the match.
Of the protests, she said she had woken up predicting a climate protest might take place after similar scenes at Wimbledon and the French Open.
“The crazy thing is this morning I told myself, ‘I bet there’s gonna be a climate change protest in the final.’ I didn’t think it’d be in the semifinal,” she said in a televised interview with ESPN.
“Immediately when it happened, I told the ref it was a protest. Karolina asked me how I recognized it was a protest. I was like, ‘I don’t know. Something this morning told me.’”
Gauff also sent a message to fellow star Naomi Osaka, who was watching the spectacle from the stands.
“Thanks for coming,” she said. “Naomi, I remember the moment we had on this court three years ago. It meant a lot to me. So excited to have you back on tour... Hopefully I get to meet your daughter… and hi to your mom, too.”
In a statement taking responsibility for the protest, environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion New York explained they “disrupted this tennis game because if the players want to play more tennis in the future, we need to tell the truth about the extreme dangers of business as usual.”
“Biden has not lived up to his climate pledges. Even those pledges are weak: electric cars, carbon capture, and expanded renewables do not adequately resolve the catastrophe that looms. Biden’s actions are worse than failure: expanded oil and gas drilling.”
Miles Grant, a spokesman for Extinction Rebellion, told The New York Times that the protesters “were not hurt. That was really important to us.”
