Molik blames US open atmosphere for loss

Alicia Molik was quite unhappy with all of the distractions at the US Open during her loss yesterday.

An injured and agitated Alicia Molik fell victim to the "circus" that is the US Open at Flushing Meadows.

On a forgettable opening day to the championships for Australia, Molik lost her first-round match against American teenager Vania King 6-3 6-2 before Samantha Stosur surrendered 6-2 7-6 (7-5) to Czech Lucie Safarova.

Molik labelled both her performance and disconcerting playing conditions she had to endure on court 11 as "shocking" and urged officials of the season's last grand slam to put themselves in the players' shoes before organising additional tournament entertainment.

"There was Tina Turner going on, you had the court generators, you had the bloke behind us burning hot dogs that I could smell," Molik complained.

"You had the generators drying next door's court, you had a clinic going on next door where they were giving each other high-fives in a big huddle yelling things out, and it's difficult when you can't actually hear the ball come off your racquet or from her racquet.

"That also gives you an indication of the spin and the speed of ball. I airswung a ball today.

"Being a professional tennis player, you have to block all those things out. I didn't have the ability to do that today and that definitely contributed to the horrendous play.

"But that's probably why the people that do well at this tournament are able to block all those things out ... or they don't play on court 11 maybe.

"It's really shocking, though. They put a concert just behind. So maybe 10, 15 metres away, you've got a live concert going on with speakers and the wind going in that direction.

"So you feel like you're in the middle of a circus actually. It doesn't feel like a tennis tournament, or didn't today. I felt like I was at the school fare or something."

Molik, who needed a wildcard into the event after slipping to 203rd in the rankings as she continues to struggle in her comeback from long-term illness, said she sarcastically asked the chair umpire to turn Tina Turner up because she was enjoying it so much.

"I think he got my drift," she said.

"But I think until the officials are down at court level and on the ground ... they spend a lot of time ... their offices are here in centre court so they probably miss a lot of things going on.

"Look, I'm sure a lot of the other courts have other issues also so I'm not just the one complaining. It's just fact. That's exactly what's happening out there.

"It went through my mind that it'd be great to have noise-cancelling head phones on the court. It was really difficult to think."

Molik said the combination of the noise and a knee injury that she aggravated at 3-3 in the first set made it impossible to compete.

"It was the worst kind of day at the office, I guess, you can have," the South Australian lamented.

"It's probably one that I have to forget about because basically things couldn't have got any worse out there. It was horrible, it was shocking."

Stosur, who played on nearby court eight, also conceded to finding it difficult to cope with the all the distractions.

"It's just kind of mayhem out there," she said.

The Australian No.1 wasted a fabulous opportunity to continue her rise up the rankings after landing in New York at a career-high No.30 following her upset of former world No.1 Lindsay Davenport in LA two weeks ago and then reaching the semi-finals in New Haven.

Having had no points to defend at the Open following her first-round exit last year, the 22-year-old only had to win a match or two to break into the top 30. The Age