The arrival of President Donald Trump to the final of the US Open male singles seemed to cause a delayed entrance for the spectators, which resulted in long lines of frustrated fans and empty seats in the extensive Arthur Ashe stadium.
The final between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz began at 2:30 pm et, which was half an hour later than his time originally scheduled due to “security measures” and to “make sure that fans have additional time to reach their seats,” wrote the US Open in X.
Trump walked to greet the crowd around 1:45 pm, since the stadium was almost 10% full and found a wave of mixed cheers and boos. Then he took his seat in the Rolex box located in Midcurt.
He joined the White House Cabinet Chief, Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the special envoy Steve Witkoff, her son -in -law Jared Kushner and the granddaughter Arabella Kushner.
The absence of the generally full crowd was remarkable.
A announcer said in the air: “Many still expected in security lines to enter, many of them were taken by surprise … They were not told to prepare for this.” Another announcer added: “That is an annoyance. These two are going to do it,” referring to the two best classified players.
Leah Gomberg, 57, said he waited about four hours, even in unexpected lines of traffic and security, to enter.
He described to see 30 TSA level security scanners at the entrance to the Arthur Ashe stadium, which he described as unusual in the US Open. Gomberg said he waited for an hour and 20 minutes until he reached the scanners.
“There are thousands and thousands of people and there is a set. We have all paid a lot of money to enter our seats and we can’t,” News told NBC before entering at 3:50 pm
“Everyone is angry and there were many boos at the beginning. People around the world are stopped here because they arrived at the United States Open to see tennis,” Gomberg continued. “Now it’s half empty there, although all famous people are there, and of course, Trump is there, but not people who paid a lot of money for their tickets.”
Gomberg said the traffic began on the road on the way to the stadium.
“We were actually trapped on the road and left the car and walked more than one mile, and left my husband to try to find parking,” he said. “He had to park on the other side of the open in the streets because they simply stopped the people. You didn’t have to park.”
