@dailymailsportusa: Home favorite Coco Gauff began her US Open first round match in front of a sparse Arthur Ashe crowd amid fury over extortionate pricing for the 2026 tournament. Gauff is a former champion and American tennis' biggest star, but even a primetime placement for the 22-year-old couldn't fill the 23,000-capacity arena in New York, with swathes of empty seats as she took to the court to face Zeynep Sonmez. Tickets for the Tuesday night session - which also features men's No 1 seed Alexander Zverev - on the showpiece court had been selling for upwards of $500 on resale sites, with courtside seats still being listed for $2,900 even as play got underway. When the match began, it appeared that fewer than half of the seats on Ashe were occupied, with the atmosphere extremely subdued as a result. As it progressed into a second set, the arena began to fill to roughly 80% full. Gauff's match - an eventual 6-3, 6-4 win - came after a rain-affected day session at the US Open, with a delayed start on the outside courts, followed by a few hours of play and then more rain. The two courts with roofs - Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong - both completed a two-match schedule, but opted against moving any delayed outdoor action to the bigger courts before the night session. As a result, fans who had paid hundreds for the privilege of just getting through the gates in New York were forced to fork out more for Arthur Ashe, line up for unreserved seating at Louis Armstrong, or settle for watching the action on a big screen. More rain is scheduled later in the week, and further delays could cause a headache for organizers as they scramble to fit multiple singles and doubles competition into the fortnight of action at Flushing Meadows. The lack of fans on Arthur Ashe for Gauff's match was noticed by plenty on social media, with one noting on X: 'It’s VERY concerning how few people are in Arthur Ashe Stadium right now ahead of this Coco Gauff vs Zeynep Sonmez match.' The match itself was an intriguing one, with the pair having never played each other in their careers to date. Sonmez has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past few years, reaching an all-time high of 48 this year - the highest of any Turkish player in history. Gauff, meanwhile, is a known quantity in these parts, having won the US Open in 2023 as a 19-year-old, beating Aryna Sabalenka in the final. She comes into this year's tournament as the No 4 seed, and off the back of an impressive run to the semi-final at Wimbledon in July. The Florida native made light work of her opponent though, racing to a 6-3 first-set advantage in just 33 minutes, before seeing out the second set 6-4 to secure safe passage into the second round. #cocogauff #USOpen #tennis #sports #zeynep

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Wednesday 02 September 2026 16:36:40 GMT