Coco Gauff criticizes lack of privacy at Australian Open after racket smash caught on camera

MELBOURNE, Australia — Coco Gauff has suggested “conversations” on player privacy at the Australian Open after she smashed a racket in a place she thought was private — and saw it broadcast to the world.

After her 6-1, 6-2 quarterfinal loss to Elina Svitolina on Rod Laver Arena, Gauff decided she needed to do something she doesn’t do very often, and she decided to try to do it behind closed doors. After going in search of a private spot in the catacombs of the stadium, she smashed one of her lavender Head rackets on the ground, dashing it seven times.

But there just aren’t many private spots in the player areas of the Australian Open, the tournament that turned tennis into something like an Andy Warhol film.

Cameras are everywhere — in the parking lot, the gym, the hallways. Melbourne Park is not a video safe space for a player in the way Wimbledon and the French Open are.

“I kind of have a thing with the broadcast. I feel like certain moments — the same thing happened to Aryna (Sabalenka) after I played her in the final of U.S. Open (in 2023) I feel like they don’t need to broadcast,” she said. Sabalenka, like Gauff Tuesday night, broke her racket thinking no one was watching. They were.

Coco Gauff releases her frustrations after a disappointing defeat in the Australian Open quarter-finals 💥 pic.twitter.com/4Ur9jlxR0P

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A tournament spokesperson did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Tennis is a frustrating sport for players of all levels. Seeing one of the best players in the world react like a weekend warrior at the local park is irresistible eye-candy and endlessly relatable. The racket smash has become something of an art form, with different practitioners finding sometimes creative ways to put carbon fibre and polyester to the sword.

Gauff doesn’t like that. She said she broke a racket on court at the French Open once and swore she would never do it again. She hasn’t, and so when she felt she needed to do it, she tried to find a place where she could be something other than a role model for a moment.

That didn’t work.

“Maybe some conversations can be had, because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room,” she said.

As for the smash itself, she said she had to lash out in some way. Better to let the racket take the heat than the people around her.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” she said. “Otherwise, I’m just going to be snappy with the people around me, and I don’t want to do that, because like I said, they don’t deserve it. They did their best. I did mine. Just need to let the frustration out.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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