An unauthorized drone crashed into a section of empty seats at Louis Armstrong Stadium about 8:30 p.m. Thursday during a second-round match between Flavia Pennetta and Monica Niculescu, causing a brief delay and some fear and confusion.
“It was a little bit scary, I have to say, because with all the things happening now in the world, I imagine maybe it’s a bomb,” said Pennetta, the No. 26 seed from Italy. “That was the first reaction. I think it’s normal to think something like that.”
The drone came screeching in from the east along the baseline where Pennetta was playing a point late in the second set, about 40 feet above court level.