U.S. Open protesters charged with criminal trespass after disrupting match

Police said the two men were arrested and charged on Thursday and were held at the 110 Precinct. 

The match between Coco Gauff, of the U.S., and Karolína Muchová, of Czechia, was delayed for nearly 50 minutes, the U.S. Tennis Association said. Both players took their seats during the delay and play resumed after the protesters were removed. 

Gauff won the match to advance to the final on Saturday, where she will face Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.

Extinction Rebellion, an environmental activist group, took credit for the protest and used the slogan “no tennis on a dead planet” to call for an end to fossil fuels.

There were four protesters in all, the U.S. Tennis Association said in a statement Thursday night. Three were removed and escorted out of the stadium while the fourth “affixed their bare feet to the floor of the seating bowl.”

Stacey Allaster, the tournament director, said in an interview that there was a group of environmental protesters in an upper area of the stadium.

“When security got there, they found that one of the protesters had physically glued themselves in their bare feet to the cement floor,” Allaster said.

Lindiwe Priscilla Krasin, 47, a climate activist who was one of the protesters, said the group was there to call attention to “the greatest tragedy in human history that we are facing right now.”

“It’s only a matter of time before things get much worse. So I protested because I’m terrified,” she said.

“I understand the discomfort that the audience felt,” she added. “But we can no longer feel comfortable at a time like this. We need the wake up calls.”

The protest at the tennis tournament follows several protests by environmental activist groups, including one where protesters recently blocked the route to the Burning Man festival in Nevada. Others have recently staged protests targeting famous works of art.