Coco Gauff, the two-time major champion, complained about backstage surveillance after her epic post-match racket-smash was captured by Melbourne Park’s cameras.
Having suffered a traumatic 6-1, 6-2 defeat at the hands of 12th seed Elina Svitolina, Gauff walloped her racket into the concourse seven times in an understandable outburst of fury.
Asked about her reaction, Gauff said: “I tried to go somewhere where there was no cameras. 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 final of US Open – I feel like they don’t need to broadcast.
“Maybe some conversations can be had, because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room.”
When the next questioner enquired whether it had been helpful for Gauff to vent her fury, she replied: “Yeah, definitely. I know myself, and I don’t want to lash out on my team. They’re good people. They don’t deserve that, and I know I’m emotional.
“I don’t try to do it on court in front of kids and things like that, but I do know I need to let out that emotion. Otherwise, I’m just going to be snappy with the people around me, and I don’t want to do that. They did their best. I did mine.”
Moments earlier, Gauff’s fragile game had collapsed completely as she suffered the first significant upset of this tournament. On paper, she had started as a strong favourite against Elina Svitolina, but her reputation counted for little as she self-destructed in just 59 minutes.
For all that Svitolina played an excellent match, raking powerful forehands into the corners, she was also the beneficiary of Gauff’s many shocking misses. The statistics of this 6-1, 6-2 rout were alarming, as Gauff struck just three winners alongside 26 unforced errors.
The tone was set in the opening game, when Gauff hit a double-fault followed by a wild backhand to give up the first of six breaks of serve. Even though she managed to break back immediately, her radar was clearly off and she was soon turning to her coaching box in despair.
“She’s out-doing me in everything,” said Gauff while trailing 3-0 in the second set. “Am I playing the wrong way?”
Asked about this moment after the match, Gauff explained that “They [her support team] were just telling me to go for bigger targets, hit through the middle. But, I don’t know, I just felt like hitting through the middle against her wasn’t working, because she was hitting winners. So, yeah, it was just an awkward day.”
An unpredictable performer, Gauff has enormous upside in terms of her athleticism and competitive spirit, but she also deals with significant technical challenges every time she goes on court. Both her serve and her forehand are prone to malfunctioning, and on this occasion, the general sense of chaos infected her usually world-class backhand as well.
Her coach at courtside on Tuesday was Gavin MacMillan, a biomechanical specialist who earned enormous plaudits when he helped world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka overcome the yips on her serve and turn that vulnerable shot into a strength.
But after five months working together, Gauff’s serve has failed to respond to the MacMillan method. Her first serve in this match averaged just 93mph, 11mph less than her opponent, and it was also noticeable that in her previous win – a tight three-setter against Karolina Muchova – she had avoided hitting top-spin forehands in the final stages, preferring to chop the ball with a slice motion instead.
Speaking on TNT Sports, the former doubles champion Jamie Murray queried whether Gauff is worrying too much about her swing path. “The more you think technically on the court, the more rigid and stiff you can become with your strokes,” said Murray. “When you’re worrying about your elbow and your wrist and contact point on the ball, it’s very difficult to perform if those are the thoughts that are going through your head.”
When asked about her serve after the match, Gauff’s own feeling was that the shot is generally on the right track, but has yet to arrive at its destination. “There’s definitely positives I can take, especially in my last match against Karolina,” she said. “I feel like that moment was definitely a game I would usually throw in some doubles.
“Is my serve where I want it to be? No. But I definitely can look back at this tournament and say that it has improved. The focus was making the second more reliable, which it definitely is, but obviously I want to just continue that and then make the first serve a bit more aggressive.”
Gauff is still the reigning French Open champion but her recent record at the majors has been disappointing. She lost her opening match at Wimbledon last summer, before going down to Naomi Osaka in the fourth round of the US Open, and now making this quarter-final exit.
In her post-match press conference, Gauff complimented Svitolina on the quality of her play. “I credit it [the defeat] to her because she forced me to play like that. It’s not like I just woke up and, yeah, today was a bad day. Bad days are often caused by your opponent.
“Usually I’m able to kind of scrap,” Gauff added. “At least to make the scoreline tighter, and then you never know, nerves can come up on her. Today I just wasn’t able to do that. I tried my best to be positive, but I just felt like nothing was working. Yeah, that’s a bit frustrating when you are out there and you feel like your strengths aren’t really doing their thing.”
Svitolina will be a popular semi-finalist in many quarters, although she goes into Thursday’s match against Sabalenka with a dismal record. In three previous appearances at this stage of the majors, she has never won more than three games in a set.
Elina Svitolina is into the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the first time in her career 🙌
A truly DOMINANT performance, winning in less than an hour 🤯 pic.twitter.com/nLlLTBeqI8
— TNT Sports (@tntsports) January 27, 2026
The leading performer among numerous Ukrainians on the women’s tour, Svitolina has been a powerful spokeswoman for her country. Since Russia’s invasion, she has invested her own money in trying to keep the tennis pathways alive for her potential successors, even amidst the conflict.
Her husband Gael Monfils – himself a former world No 6 who is playing his final season of professional tennis – sat at courtside throughout the match and maintained his famously cool exterior. Their three-year-old daughter, Skai, is still too young to watch her play.
Asked in her on-court interview if she had enjoyed a good day at the office, Svitolina replied: “Not bad, I would say. Very, very pleased with the tournament so far. It’s always been my dream to come back here after maternity leave. It was my goal to get back into the top ten.”
As for whether she had received any messages of congratulation, Svitolina said: “It’s very close to my heart to see a lot of support from Ukrainians – and lots of people also get to know tennis in Ukraine, which is great, because it was one of the toughest winters for Ukrainian people without electricity and everything.
“So I feel like bringing this light, a little light, even just positive news to Ukrainian people, to my friends when they are watching my matches, of course, it’s great feeling for me.”
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