Jan 27 : Coco Gauff looked for a place without cameras to channel her frustration after a straight-sets loss to Elina Svitolina in the Australian Open quarter-finals, but was unhappy to find out that a video of her smashing her racket on the floor was broadcast to viewers worldwide.
Twice Grand Slam winner Gauff was visibly upset with her performance on Tuesday, as she committed 26 unforced errors and lost the match 6-1 6-2 in 59 minutes.
The American third seed went behind a wall near the match call area inside the venue, where a camera caught her hitting the racket repeatedly against the floor.
“I tried to go somewhere where there were no cameras,” the 21-year-old told reporters.
“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 the U.S. Open – I feel like they don’t need to broadcast.”
World number one Sabalenka, who will take on Svitolina in the semi-finals, had smashed her racket in a training area after losing to Gauff in the 2023 U.S. Open final, and video of the incident was also made public.
“I tried to go somewhere where they wouldn’t broadcast it, but obviously they did. Maybe some conversations can be had, because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room,” Gauff added.
“I think for me, 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,” Gauff said.
“I just took the minute to go and do that. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Like I said, 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, because like I said, they don’t deserve it. They did their best. I did mine. Just need to let the frustration out.”
