Police in New York mistakenly arrested former tennis player James Blake while he was waiting for a car to take him to the US Open at Flushing Meadows on Wednesday.

The 35-year-old American, who retired from the sport in 2013, was pushed to the ground by five plainclothes officers and detained for 15 minutes.

The New York City police believed at the time that Blake was a suspect in a theft case, but once they realised that the former sportsman was not involved, they released him.

"You'd think they could say, 'hey, we want to talk to you. We are looking in to something'," Blake told the New York Daily News. "You would think at some point they would get the memo that this isn't okay, but it seems that there's no stopping it."

Blake, who won 10 singles titles in his career, was due to attend the US Open to make an appearance for the Time-Warner Cable company.