Emma Raducanu's ex-coach weighs in on Donald Trump US Open visit that sparked chaos

There was chaos at the US Open on Sunday when president Donald Trump attended the men's singles final, sitting in the Rolex suite on Arthur Ashe Stadium. There were enhanced security measures in place, with airport-style scanners installed around the 23,700-strong showcourt overnight.

The extra checks led to huge queues around the grounds, and the championship match between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner was postponed by half an hour to allow more time for fans to get into the venue. The president then received a mixed reaction of boos and cheers when he was shown on the big screen while the national anthem was sung.

But Emma Raducanu's former coach, Mark Petchey, has now suggested that president Trump turned the men's final into a "show", even though he's a polarising figure.

Speaking to tennis betting site BetVictor, Petchey said: "There's no more polarising figure in the world right now than Donald Trump. Whether he turns up on time or whether he turns up late, no one's going to care.

"People are going to make an opinion and people have already made an opinion about his US Open appearance. It doesn't really matter what he does.

"People have decided which side of the line that they're on and they're going to come down with full force on that side. There's not going to be any middle ground."

While some fans weren't happy to see the final be postponed due to the additional measures in palace for Trump's visit, British tennis coach and commentator Petchey explained that sporting events couldn't always be "perfect".

He added: "Listen, I'm all for the show. I've always been like that. Tennis, golf, whatever. It's a show. Yes, it's obviously a sporting event, but if you make it clinical, you make it like a hospital room and you take away what fans want.

"VAR has done that in soccer. I'm the first one to like VAR, I like a challenge system. But it has to be instant. You have to allow the fans passion and life is messy. Life isn't perfect and this whole desire for sport to replicate something that isn't life, is really bemusing to me.

"Life doesn't go the way that you want it to do the majority of the time.

"Why do you think you have a right to make sport 100 per cent right all the time? It kind of defeats the object. The object is to go away and sometimes feel like you've been half done by it because that's life for you."

Sinner later addressed the delay to the final. After losing in four sets, the Italian said: "No, it was fine. They told us in a huge amount before that the match start at 2.30pm, so we were not warming up twice. It was all fine."

Alcaraz's coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, also explained that they moved their pre-match warm-up. "We supposed to start warming up 1.30pm, and at the end we move it to 2pm. Because he had lunch before we know that the match has moved to 2.30pm, so we couldn't move the lunchtime, but we don't do too much," he explained.

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