'No Tennis on Dead Planet': Indian-Origin Climate Protester Disrupts US Open

An Indian-origin man, Sayak Mukhopadhyay, glued his feet to the stadium floor and disrupted a US Open Tennis match between American Coco Gauff and Czech Karolina Muchova on 7 September 7 for nearly 50 minutes. 

(Photo Courtesy: xrebellion.nyc/news/us-open)

An Indian-origin man, Sayak Mukhopadhyay, glued his feet to the stadium floor and disrupted a US Open Tennis match between American Coco Gauff and Czech Karolina Muchova on 7 September 7 for nearly 50 minutes. 

According to reports, 50-year-old Mukhopadhyay, along with two other members of Extinction Rebellion NYC, stood up shouting, “No tennis on a dead planet”, and “End fossil fuels” before he removed his shoes and glued his feet to the floor, making it difficult for police to remove him.

Mukhopadhyay told the New York Post:

“The climate change movement has tried everything from writing and lobbying for legislation to demonstrating and blockading banks, but none of that has been as effective as communicating directly to the public by going to public institutions like museums and sporting arenas.”

Sayak Mukhopadhyay of White Plains, New York, was charged with trespassing, according to the New York Police Department. It said in a statement that the department’s Emergency Service Unit personnel were able to “safely free him” and arrest him.

He was released with a notice to appear in court.

Mukhopadhyay moved to New York from his native Kolkata 25 years ago. "India is something I constantly think about because I grew up there, and I am keenly aware of how low the level of resource consumption and energy consumption is there," Extinction Rebellion quoted him as saying.

Gauff, who defeated Muchova in that game and won the US Open, said at a news conference that she couldn’t get “too mad” at the antic because “it was done in a peaceful way.”

“I believe in climate change,” she said.