Two protesters who interrupted the US Open semifinals match Thursday have been charged with criminal trespassing.
The New York Police Department charged Gregory Schwedock, 35, and Shayok Mukhopadhyay, 50, both from New York, with the misdemeanor count. Mukhopadhyay, who glued his feet to the stands and was the last of the four protesters to be removed was also charged with disorderly conduct, which is a violation. The two are likely to have to pay a fine.
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Meanwhile, two other protesters were taken into police custody but not charged. The two have been banned from the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens.
Coco Gauff was leading Karolina Muchova 1-0 when the protesters interrupted the game by chanting. The two athletes waited the protesters out in the locker room. Gauff would go on to win the match 6-4, 7-5. She is the second teenager in history to advance to the US Open Finals after Serena Williams in 2001.
“I always speak about preaching about what you feel and what you believe in. And it was done in a peaceful way, so I can’t get too mad at it. Obviously, I don’t want it to happen when I’m winning up 6-4, 1-0, and I wanted the momentum to keep going,” Gauff said.
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Gauff would go on to compete Saturday as the ranked No. 6 in the world, while her opponent Aryna Sabalenka was No. 2 before Gauf also beat her, winning her first Grand Slam title.
The tennis champion broke the record for the youngest player to qualify for the main Wimbledon draw since its inception in 1968. She was 15 at the time. At 17, she qualified for the Tokyo Olympics but had to withdraw when she contracted the coronavirus. At the time, she was the youngest player ranked in the top 100 by the Women’s Tennis Association and held a career-high ranking of world No. 23 in singles tennis.
