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Daria Saville jokingly agreed Jelena Ostapenko "would have handled the situation" with climate protestors if she was playing on Thursday in the US Open semifinal. Early in the second set of the Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova match, a group of four climate activists interrupted the match.
The fourth glued himself to the ground, causing the match to be delayed for 49 minutes before he was safely removed.
During a US Open third-round win over Bernarda Pera, Ostapenko got so annoyed with one spectator that she hushed him out and waved him out at one point.
"I love tennis twitter hahhaha. she would have handled the situation," Saville wrote on X.
i love tennis twitter hahhaha. she would have handled the situation :D https://t.co/PVWpWcxOpf — Daria Saville (@Daria_gav) September 8, 2023
Saville jokes Ostapenko 'would have handled' the situation with the protestors
After a 49-minute delay, the US Open semifinal resumed and Gauff completed a 6-4 7-5 win.
"The fourth protester affixed their bare feet to the floor of the seating bowl. Due to the nature of this action, NYPD and medical personnel were needed in order to safely remove this individual from the stadium," the USTA said in a statement.
The US Open organizers confirmed they are well aware incidents like this may happen but added they will keep working on preventing them. “There’s no doubt in a 24,000-seat stadium, hopefully, people don’t get ideas.
We know in these large events, environmental protestors use the platform. Certainly, security will be resuming – along with NYPD – to see what we can do to prevent it in the future," USTA executive Stacey Allaster told ESPN.
Meanwhile, after her win, Gauff didn't want to bash the protestors or anything like that. “I always speak about preaching … about what you feel and what you believe in. It was done in a peaceful way, so I can’t get too mad at it.
If that’s what they felt they needed to do to get their voices heard, I can’t really get upset at it,” Gauff said.