Tennis fans split over spliffs at US Open after player gripes about smell

Tennis balls aren’t the only green at the US Open this year — and fans are spliff over whether that’s a bad thing.

The pairing of THC with tennis at the famed event prompted player Casper Ruud on Monday to gripe that the courts are starting to smell like weed — while calling the open aroma of pot “the worst thing about New York.

“The smell is everywhere, even here on the courts,” vented the 26-year-old world No.12 Norwegian after his doubles matches over the weekend.

“We have to accept it, but it’s not my favorite smell,” he said. “It’s quite annoying to be playing, tired, and just meters away, someone is smoking marijuana.”

But some Open fans suggested Tuesday he should take a toke himself and calm down.

“He needs to relax. He needs to smoke a bong to play his next match,” said 28-year-old Matt Kovacs, a Canadian who came down to Queens to watch the tennis.

“I think he’s gotta get used to it. It’s legal here,” Kovacs added.

Whiffs of weed wafted about the grounds of the Billie Jean National Tennis Center, mixing with the familiar stadium scents of frying burgers and overpoured beers.

While smoking and vaping are both banned at Billie Jean National Tennis Center, workers admitted they’d seen people inhaling — but didn’t know what they were supposed to do about it.

“I saw a vaper. There are vapers. They are the ones who do this,” a worker said. “They’re here. What do I do? I was not given direction.”

And many THC-loving tennis fans weren’t shy about showing their leafy habit — which has been legal in New York since 2021 — and said Ruud should get out of town if he doesn’t like the way New Yorkers do tennis.

“See you at the French Open. Don’t stop our weed,” said Chantal Bishop, 52, a lifelong New Yorker from Crown Height, Brooklyn. “We don’t f–king care. We are New Yorkers.”

“When is he playing? I’m gonna make sure to smoke,” she quipped.

John Siegel, a 32-year-old Upper East Sider who described himself as a “former pot smoker,” called Ruud a “p–sy.

“Has he never played tennis outside before?”

But not everybody was so quick to tamp out the tennis star.

“It was skunky. I definitely smelled it on the grounds here,” said 45-year-old Allison Israel. “It’s all over New York, though. I was in Cold Springs Harbor at a very upscale restaurant, and there was someone crouched in the doorway smoking weed.

“He has a point,” she said of Ruud.

Deb Allen, 72, said she thinks whoever is smoking weed in the stands should get some class.

“Find some gummies. Be kind,” she said. “Who wants to smell everyone else’s smoke?”

But even some who agreed with Ruud said he should learn to deal with it — because they don’t think it’s going away anytime soon.

“Look, I understand this is his life and his occupation, but it’s part of society. It’s legal,” said 69-year-old Michiganer Shelton Stone. “He never smelled pot in Rome or Paris or Tokyo? Of course he did.

“Get over it.”