President Donald Trump’s arrival on the U.S. Open males’s singles closing appeared to trigger delayed entry for spectators, leading to lengthy strains of pissed off followers and empty seats within the sprawling Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The ultimate between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz kicked off at 2:30 p.m. ET, which was half an hour later than its initially scheduled time as a result of “safety measures in place” and to “make sure that followers have extra time to get to their seats,” the U.S. Open wrote on X.
Trump walked round to wave to the gang at round 1:45 p.m. because the stadium was nearly 10% full and was met with a wave of blended cheers and boos. He then took his seat on the Rolex field situated at midcourt.
He was joined by White Home chief of employees Susie Wiles, Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, particular envoy Steve Witkoff, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and granddaughter Arabella Kushner.
The absence of the normally packed crowd was noticeable.
One announcer famous on air: “So many nonetheless ready in safety strains to get in, numerous them have been caught off guard … not instructed to arrange for this.” One other announcer added, “That’s a bummer. These two are going at it,” referring to the 2 top-ranked gamers.
Leah Gomberg, 57, mentioned she waited for about 4 hours, together with in surprising site visitors and safety strains, to get in.
She described seeing 30 TSA-level safety scanners on the entry to Arthur Ashe stadium, which she described as uncommon on the U.S. Open. Gomberg mentioned she waited an hour and 20 minutes to only to succeed in the scanners.
“There’s like 1000’s and 1000’s of individuals and it’s already one set via. We’ve all paid some huge cash to get into our seats and we are able to’t,” she instructed NBC Information earlier than gaining entry at 3:50 p.m.
“All people is pissed off and there was numerous booing to start with. Individuals from everywhere in the world are standing right here as a result of they got here to the U.S. Open to see tennis,” Gomberg continued. “Now it’s half-empty in there, though all of the well-known individuals are there, and naturally Mr. Trump is in there, however not the individuals who paid some huge cash for his or her tickets.”
Gomberg mentioned the site visitors began on the freeway en path to the stadium.
“We really have been caught on the freeway and bought out of the automobile and walked greater than a mile, and left my husband to attempt to discover parking,” she mentioned. “He needed to park on the opposite facet of the Open on the streets as a result of they only stopped individuals. There was no moving into parking.”
