Protestors halt US Open 2023 semi-final: A look back at major disruptive incidents in Grand Slams

The semi-final between Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova was disrupted by a climate protestor for nearly an hour.

This year’s US Open women’s singles semi-final match between Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova was delayed by nearly 50 minutes due to a disruption by four environmental activists at the Arthur Ashe Stadium stands. One of the protesters even glued his bare feet to the concrete floor. The fixture was halted in the second set with Gauff leading 1-0. The interruption, however, did not have much bearing on Gauff’s performance as the American went on to win the fixture 6-4, 7-5, to advance to the final stage at the Flushing Meadows.

Protesters demonstrate at a match between Coco Gauff, of the United States, and Karolina Muchova, of the Czech Republic, during the women's singles semifinals of the U.S. Open tennis championships (AP)

Later, Gauff revealed that she was not much upset at the protest. "It was done in a peaceful way, so I can't get too mad at it. Obviously, I don't want it to happen when I'm winning up 6-4 1-0, and I wanted the momentum to keep going. But hey, if that's what they felt they needed to do to get their voices heard, I can't really get upset at it,” the 19-year-old was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.

Protesters intervening in a game of tennis is not something new. There have been instances of matches being stopped due to protests. In this article, we will relive three such incidents.

2015 Australian Open final

A protest was staged by a group of asylum-seeking advocates during the Australian Open men’s singles final between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray in 2015. Protesters, calling for the closure of the controversial Manus Island immigration detention centre, interrupted the match while Djokovic was leading 4-3 in the second set at the Rod Laver Arena. A banner, which read ‘Australia Open for refugees,’ was held by the protestors. Two women were even reportedly arrested in relation to the incident.

2023 Wimbledon

This year’s Wimbledon was marred by the Just Stop Oil protesters deciding to interrupt matches on multiple occasions. The third day of Wimbledon witnessed some unpleasant scenes because of the Just Stop Oil protesters’ unruly intervention. Two protesters also ran onto the court during the men’s singles match between Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro and Grigor Dimitrov. The match between Britain’s Katie Boulter and Australia’s Daria Savill was also impacted by a similar kind of incident.

2022 French Open semifinal

The French Open men’s singles semifinal between Marin Cilic and Casper Ruud was interrupted by a climate activist, sporting a T-shirt which had a message, “We have 1028 days left.” Kneeling on the court, the female decided to tie herself to the net. The incident took place during the third set of the match with Ruud leading 3-6, 6-4, 4-1, 15-all. The security personnel had eventually taken the protester off the court.