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The climate protester who interrupted the U.S. Open last week by gluing his bare feet to the stadium floor interpreted the response from one of the tournament’s star players as “support,” and defended his bizarre actions as a last resort.
“The climate change movement has tried everything from writing and lobbying for legislation to demonstrating and blockading banks, but none of that has been as effective as communicating directly to the public by going to public institutions like museums and sporting arenas,” Sayak Mukhopadhyay told The Post.
Mukhopadhyay and three other activists with the group Extinction Rebellion NYC held up the tennis match between American Coco Gauff and Czech Karolina Muchova for about 50 minutes on Thursday night, chanting, “No tennis on a dead planet,” and “End fossil fuels” before Mukhopadhyay affixed his feet to the concrete floor of the Arthur Ashe stadium in Queens.
In a post-game press conference Gauff said, “It was done in a peaceful way, so I can’t get too mad at it,” Gauff said.
“Would I prefer it not happening in my match? 100%, yeah,” the 19-year-old star continued.
“I’m not going to sit here and lie. But it is what it is.”
Mukhopadhyay says he wishes her a long and successful career but “she knows the same thing that we know: if we don’t take drastic action soon, tennis will not be playable by the time she retires.”
Mukhopadhyay, of White Plains, and another man, Gregory Schwedock of Manhattan, were arrested and charged — Mukhopadhyay with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct and Schwedock with criminal trespass.
Extinction Rebellion NYC has a week of climate actions planned starting on Sunday, with a naked bike ride to end fossil fuels beginning at Columbus Circle followed by “mass meditations” and a protest at the Museum of Modern Art later in the week, according to its website.
The global Extinction Rebellion group has been associated with past demonstrations like hurling food at and gluing themselves to famous artworks, spray-painting the yacht of a Walmart heiress and blockading the route into and out of the Burning Man festival.
Around the same time as the glue fiasco, a naked animal rights activist stormed onto the catwalk at the Coach fashion show at the New York Public Library’s Main branch in Manhattan.
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