The United States Open installed a new $150 million retractable roof before this year’s tournament. Next year, officials might need to add white-noise machines and sound-canceling drapes.
Fans at the U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows have long been more raucous than those at the sport’s staid tournaments. But the retractable roof structure has produced new and unforeseen noise issues: voices of fans in the upper reaches of Arthur Ashe Stadium, the showcase for the U.S. Open’s marquee matches, are reverberating off the roof and can be heard loudly and clearly down on the court during points.