Birrell weeds out wedding concerns for US Open push

Her wedding budget already sorted, the pressure is off as Kim Birrell chases a neat grand slam first at a US Open where the Australian reckons "anything can happen".

The Gold Coast ace is tying the knot in Kingscliff in December and conceded she might have overspent on the big day.

But a massive first-round Roland Garros win over world No.5 Jessica Pegula and $215,000 pay day squared the ledger, leaving her to swing freely in New York without any off-court concerns.

"We had a little bet on the French Open and if I won a round there I could do whatever I wanted with the floral budget," Birrell said ahead of her Flushing Meadows opener on Sunday (Monday AEST) against Petra Marcinko.

"But, no, that was the main thing. You can only plan so much up until right before so hopefully I don't get too stressed, but I'm all good."

The flowers picked, it is weed that Birrell is now wary of after Novak Djokovic became the biggest voice to complain of marijuana wafting through the Billie Jean King Tennis Centre.

Smoking is prohibited within the US Open grounds but the centre is nestled in the middle of Corona Park, where nothing is stopping people over the age of 21 smoking next to the courts.

Court 17 in particular has been notorious for the strong stench of "pot", with Alexander Zverev likening it to "Snoop Dogg's living room" in 2023.

"You can really smell the smell. It's not like you can miss it. I'm not a fan of the smell either - it stinks," Djokovic said last year before several more players raised the issue this week.

"But it's allowed here and you have to accept it. You can feel it everywhere, from the training grounds to the courts where we play our matches. That's how it is."

With Birrell opening her campaign on outside Court 7, the Australian is bracing herself.

"I know sometimes it just hits you in the face, and I think as an athlete we're quite sensitive to those kinds of things," Birrell said.

"I mean, there's all kinds of funny smells when you walk around the streets of New York so it is interesting, but I don't know where it comes from because it's definitely not the athletes or the tennis players that are doing it.

Victory over Marcinko would give Birrell a win at all four majors for the first time in a single season and set up a secound-round clash with either American McCartney Kessler or Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova.