Coco Gauff-Karolina Muchova US Open semifinal delayed by climate protesters

The U.S. Open women’s semifinal between American Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova was delayed for nearly 50 minutes due to disruptive protesters — including one who glued his feet to the ground — in the upper decks of Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday night.

Gauff, who eventually won in straight sets, was leading 1-0 in the second set when play was interrupted by four fans protesting climate change.

During the stoppage in play, the crowd began chanting, “Kick them out! Kick them out!”

It took roughly seven minutes before several were physically removed, though one male fan refused to leave and held up the proceedings even more as he glued his bare feet to the ground.

At around 8:50 p.m. — about 45 minutes into the lengthy stoppage — both players came back onto the court to warm up and continued the match four minutes later.

“We had environmental protesters up in the loge area,” USTA chief executive Stacey Allaster told ESPN during the delay. “When security got there, they found one of the protestors had physically glued himself by his bare feet to the cement floor.

“There’s no doubt in a 24,000-seat stadium people get ideas. We know environmental protestors use the platform (of events like this). Certainly, security will be resuming — along with law enforcement — to see what we can do to prevent it in the future.”

The USTA confirmed there were four protesters and that they were taken into police custody.

“Three of the four protesters were escorted out of the stadium without further incident,” the USTA said in a statement. “The fourth protester affixed their bare feet to the floor of the seating bowl. Due to the nature of this action, NYPD and medical personnel were needed in order to safely remove this individual from the stadium.

“The four protesters were taken into NYPD custody.”

According to the New York Times, an activist group, Extinction Rebellion NYC, took responsibility for the protest.

Muchova used the lengthy delay, which officially lasted 49 minutes, to request medical attention before eventually going to the locker room.

Gauff was understandably befuddled and asked whether the fan was going to be removed.

She was told she could leave the court if she so wanted, so she wandered over to where coach Brad Gilbert was sitting to ask his advice.

“They said they’re going to be five or 10 minutes. Should I leave the court?” said Gauff.

When Gilbert initially told her no, she asked rhetorically, “Why are you negotiating?”

After the semifinal, Gauff said she had a premonition that something like this might happen during one of her matches.

“The crazy thing is this morning I told myself ‘I bet there’s gonna be a climate change protest in the final,'” she told ESPN. “I didn’t think it’d be in the semifinal. Immediately when it happened, I told the ref it was a protest. Karolina asked me how I recognized it was a protest.

“I was like ‘I don’t know. Something this morning told me.’”

It’s not the first time this summer a Grand Slam match has been stopped for protests.

In July, Wimbledon was disrupted by protesters as Just Stop Oil supporters were removed by security and arrested after they ran onto a court and threw orange confetti, glitter and jigsaw pieces onto the grass, disrupting two matches.

Gauff took the second set after the delay and is now seeking her first Grand Slam title. She will face Aryna Sabalenka who rallied to a three-set victory over Madison Keys.

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