What’s worse than playing an abysmal match on one of the biggest stages in tennis? How about a fleet of invasive cameras tracking your moments of frustration as you walk through corridors that used to be private.
Coco Gauff, who fell to Elina Svitolina in straight sets on Day 10 in Melbourne and afterward gave all the credit to her opponent for making her struggle, took offense to the fact that her post-match racquet-smashing was captured by cameras and broadcast worldwide.
She was looking for a private place to air out some frustration and thought she had found one, but she was wrong. After the match, Gauff expressed her displeasure.
“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 US Open. I feel like they don’t need to broadcast. I tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn’t a camera, because I don’t necessarily like breaking racquets, but I lost 1 and 2.”
Gauff explained that she doesn’t, as a rule, like to break racquets on court. Instead, she opted for the emotional bloodletting in the corridor—a moment that is now making news worldwide.
“I broke one racquet [in the] quarters, I think, or round of 16 [at the] French Open, I think, and I said I would never do it again on court, because I don’t feel like that’s a good representation. I tried to go somewhere where they wouldn’t broadcast it, but obviously they did. So, yeah, maybe some conversations can be had, because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room.”
Gauff Praises Svitolina
The 21-year-old American said she struggled to adjust to the conditions inside Rod Laver Arena, which had the roof closed due to extreme heat, but she refused to cite that as the reason for her loss.
“She played really well, and unfortunately, usually when people raise their level, I’m able to raise mine, and today I just didn’t do that,” she said. “I credit it 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, but bad days are often caused by your opponent. So she did well.”
Gauff admitted she was disappointed in herself and was even surprised she could only manage three games against the Ukrainian.
“Usually I’m able to kind of scrap out at least to make the scoreline tighter, and then you never know, nerves can come up on her, something like that. Today I just wasn’t able to do that,” she said.
Looking Forward
Nevertheless, Gauff says her run to the quarterfinals is something she can build on. And even though her serve was subpar against Svitolina, she still feels she has improved the stroke enough to call her first Slam of 2026 a positive.
“Is my serve where I want it to be? No,” she said. “I definitely served well in some matches, but I feel like today it’s one of those shots that I would like to be the shot to get me out of trouble. But yeah, I definitely can look back at this tournament and say that it has improved. I hope that the trend can continue upward. I definitely feel like we’re working on the right things.
“The focus was making the second more reliable, which it definitely is more reliable, but obviously I want to just continue that and then make the first serve a bit more aggressive – which I did use in moments in my previous matches – but I think more on a consistent basis.”
