Environmental activists are again attacking tennis tournaments, disturbing fans and athletes. This time, because of their action, the semifinal match of the US Open had to be interrupted for almost an hour.

The guards quickly took out three of the intruders, but they had to tinker with the fourth. The man simply glued himself to the floor.

“They said we would all glue our legs together.”

The incident occurred during a match between American Cori Gauff and Czech tennis player Karolina Muchova. The course of the meeting suited the local public quite well: Gauff confidently outplayed her opponent, taking the first set without any problems. It seemed that the American would quickly earn a ticket to the final, to the delight of the fans.

However, during the second set, unbearable screams began to be heard from the stands. Due to the loud noise, the athletes could not continue the match, and the refereeing team had to stop the match. The reason for the unscheduled break was four environmental activists wearing T-shirts with the words “against fossil fuels.” Three of them stood and chanted something until the stadium staff and police interrupted the action, breaking the activists. However, removing the fourth intruder turned out to be very problematic.

Eco-activist at the Gauff-Muchova match / Photo: © Al Bello / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

The man took off his shoes and glued his bare feet to the floor. And while the security guards escorted the booted activists from the stands to the applause of the fans, the rest of the staff tried to peel off their resourceful like-minded person. In total, the match was interrupted for almost an hour due to this unusual action. Nevertheless, they managed to tear the man off the floor and hand him over to the police. ESPN later revealed the motives of the four protesters. It turned out that activists consider the US Open responsible for environmental problems, since the tournament has sponsors that negatively affect climate change.

Eco-activist at the match Muchova – Gauff / Photo: © Matthew Stockman / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

The episode itself did not affect Gauff’s mood in any way. And after a long break, she continued to methodically move towards her goal. As a result, the tennis player won with a score of 6:4, 7:5. The American became the first finalist of the US Open.

Ordinary fans did not like the action that interrupted the match. Fans considered the activists to be hypocrites who demanded attention to themselves rather than some changes.

“I just finished saying, ‘What the hell is stopping security from grabbing these people and getting them out.’ I didn’t expect this to be such an answer,” comments lonelyinbama

“He sits there and thinks: “Wow, the others betrayed me, they said that we would all glue our legs,” jokes mpd00

“It would be funny and ironic if it were a petroleum-based glue,” writes the-color-blurple

“Bro glued himself to the floor so the rest of the world could watch car commercials for an hour.” Honestly, what an idiot,” comments alphageek8

“I don’t understand what the purpose is here.” To make people worry? Do it at the headquarters of the big corporations that are actually responsible for this shit. “You are an attention-seeking madman,” says supervv99.

The anger of the fans is understandable, because this is not the first action that interrupts the match. For example, just recently activists from Just Stop Oil prevented a meeting during the first round of Wimbledon between Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and Japanese So Shimabukuro. Two people ran onto the court and scattered yellow confetti. Although the organizers even before the start of the tournament announced that they had strengthened security so that such stories would not happen.

At the same time, activists interfere not only with fans, but also with athletes. Tennis players can catch the spirit, but a long break can unsettle them. Fans hope that such situations will not happen again.