Coco Gauff has defended the climate change protestors who disrupted her US Open semi-final match against Karolina Muchova on Thursday night.
The American was leading 6-4 1-0 when four members of the audience stood up in the upper tier of the Arthur Ashe Stadium and began chanting for the end of fossil fuels.
Security and police were quickly on the scene to attempt to remove the protestors, but one of them glued their bare feet to the ground.
The match was subsequently delayed for 49 minutes before the two players were able to return to the court, with 19-year-old home favourite Gauff going on to seal her place in a first US Open final.
"Would I prefer it not to happen in my match? 100% yeah. I'm not going to sit here and lie. But it is what it is. I always speak about preaching, you know, preaching about what you feel and what you believe in," Gauff told reporters.
"It was done in a peaceful way, so I can't get mad at it. Obviously, I didn't want it to happen when I'm winning 6-4 1-0 and I wanted to keep the momentum going. But hey, if that's what they felt they needed to do to get their voices heard, I can't really get upset at it.
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"I had a feeling it was going to happen this tournament. It happened at the French Open, it happened at Wimbledon, so just following the trend, it was definitely going to happen here. I was just hoping it wasn't my match, and honestly, I thought we made it through."
The protestors were wearing T-shirts with the Extinction Rebellion logo on and reading 'End Fossil Fuels'.
Extinction Rebellion later said on social media: "Tennis as usual won't be possible on a planet in which humanity fails to keep global warming below 1.5C. If activists don't disrupt these games, the climate will."
The heat has been a major talking point at this year's US Open, with men's semi-finalist Daniil Medvedev warning during his quarter-final that a player could die in the sweltering conditions.
Gauff eventually won 6-4 7-5 and will face world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the final at Flushing Meadows, looking for her first Grand Slam title.
Barney Corkhill
