Nick Kyrgios complains about marijuana fumes during his US Open second round match against Benjamin Bonzi

Nick Kyrgios complained to the chair umpire that he could smell marijuana smoke during his US Open second round match against Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi.

The 23rd seed was leading 7-6 4-3 in his match on Louis Armstrong stadium when he made the complaint to the chair umpire.

“You dont want to remind anyone not to do it or anything. No?” A visibly irritated Kyrgios said.

“It was f***** marijuana. Marijuana. It was smoke. Obviously I’m not going to complain about food smells, obviously not.

“Obviously when athletes are moving side-to-side and when they have asthma already it’s probably not ideal.”

The chair umpire then requested that the crowd refrained from smoking. US Open rules state that those attending the tournament should “refrain from smoking, as this is a smoke free environment.”

He said: “Ladies and gentleman as a courtesy to the players please refrain yourselves from smoking around the court.”

Matt Chilton on Eurosport commentary said: “Nick Kyrgios was complaining to the umpire saying that he was inhaling marijuana fumes.

“I can’t believe that anybody is allowed to smoke in the stadium. I didn’t see any of it myself. It’s a moot point.

“At Wimbledon people are standing in huddles smoking all around the club. I always think that’s bizarre. It’s not an anti-smoking rant. I don’t care whether you smoke or not but at the side of a court when athletes are running about and plumes of cigarette smoke waft around the court from people gathering behind them and athletes running around breathing heavily suck it all in. It just seems wrong.

“Maybe somebody is having a joint in the grandstand. But surely they would have been spotted and thrown out. It was probably somebody vaping. Some of those vape smokes can smell like something illegal. Maybe that was it.”

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