US Open organisers were forced to abandon one of their show courts on day one of the tournament.
Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff started their title defences with ease on the opening day of the US Open.
A summer of controversy has slightly frustrated the ambitions of a seamless transition into the fortnight in Flushing.
With nearly all the issues coming on the men’s side, American number one Taylor Fritz was caught up in a line-calling mishap, while Denis Shapovalov took aim at the ATP, reloading a few times as well.
The US Open tournament director, Stacey Allaster will have been gritting her teeth however when issues arose on Court Nine before the tournament even started.
Laura Robson explains why Court nine might be out of use at the US Open
Two British players, Jan Choinski and Harriet Dart were expected to be in action on Court Nine, before their matches were ultimately scheduled on Court 16, which is usually used for practice.
Explaining what caused the last minute change, Laura Robson told Sky Sports: “It’s because due to the heat and humidity after the resurfaced the court on court nine, it started to bubble up. Initially that wasn’t an issue, it was playing the same as all the other surfaces, but then the bubbles get bigger.”
“So late on Thursday after qualifying finished I was out there and I was like they are resurfacing the court, how bizarre.”
There were hopes that Court Nine would be ready for singles matches, but because the relaid surface wasn’t ready in time, plans were abandoned.
“Of course, after you resurface a court it plays totally different, it’s so much slower. They were hoping to play singles out on court nine over the next few days. That looks very unlikely. The last I heard they were thinking of only playing doubles on there but if you are a doubles player you are thinking why am I getting the short straw on that one.
“So instead we are on court 16, which is usually a bit of a practice court. It did happen before at the Australian Open, it’s not totally unusual, but a bit of a change up in terms of court surface.”
It remains to be seen whether it will be used for the rest of the tournament.
How did the two rescheduled matches go?
Harriet Dart had only reached the second round in New York once in 2022.
However, any first round nerves seem to subside rather fast with Dart coming past France’s Chloe Paquet 6-1, 6-2.
An extremely difficult match against the high-flying Ukrainian and 19th seed Marta Kostyuk is scheduled next for the Brit.
Jan Choinski was making his debut at the US Open after having made his way through qualifying.
An agonising defeat in five sets followed, however the German-turned-Brit will still have much to be proud of, as well as a tasty sum of US Open prize money.
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