Rain is blocked out but noise is an issue in Arthur Ashe Stadium at U.S. Open

No one needs to be told to bring the noise to the U.S. Open.

How about bringing a little less crowd noise?

“Over time, you start to forget about the noise after maybe a set,” Venus Williams was saying Thursday. “As a player, the higher the stakes, the less you hear.

“I guess people are having some great conversations about tennis out there.”

Williams smiled after her last comment. One prevailing theme of the first four days at the Open has been the increased volume in Arthur Ashe Stadium with its sparkling new retractable roof. Gone are the wind-tunnel-like days, but other adjustments to the new digs are apparently required.

Indoor voices, people.

The chair umpires have consistently had to ask for quiet, even when the roof was only partially closed, imploring the chattering classes — “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.”

Inclement weather during the day — and the threat of it at night — meant the roof was closed Thursday and created new issues for the players as the rain pounded the roof. Getting the worst of it was second-seeded Andy Murray of Britain, who beat Marcel Granollers of Spain, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4, in the second round in 2 hours 23 minutes on Thursday.

“It apparently was raining unbelievably hard outside,” Murray said. “It seemed that way anyway.”

Murray said he couldn’t “hear anything, really,” other than line calls.

“That’s what makes it challenging,” he said. “Because we use our ears when we play. It’s not just the eyes. It helps us pick up the speed of the ball, the spin that’s on the ball, how hard someone’s hitting it.”

Even when it wasn’t raining, there was often a constant low-level buzz of chatter. Williams, who has won the U.S. Open twice, was asked whether she could play to the best of her ability with an NBA-type crowd buzz. Williams beat Julia Goerges of Germany, 6-2, 6-3, in the second round.

“There is something very special about tennis in the quiet,” Williams said. “There’s that tension that everybody feels, the sound of the ball, the sound of the footwork is very special in sports. I do enjoy the quiet.

“Especially more important the moment, that silence says it all. I don’t think it should go away, personally.”

Words were not a tonic

You could say it was not a productive few days in New York for Bernard Tomic of Australia.

He lost in the first round — in four sets to Damir Dzumhur on Tuesday and exchanged words with a heckler during the match. Those words cost him $10,000, a fine handed out by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

The money, by the way, goes to the Grand Slam Development Fund.

“I think he was just baiting to me a bit,” Tomic said in his post-match news conference Tuesday. “You know I don’t want to get into it. I apologized for what I said to him.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com