MELBOURNE, Australia — Coco Gauff smashed her racket into the concrete floor once for every time she dropped serve, and another one for good measure, after her Australian Open quarterfinal loss to Elina Svitolina on Tuesday.
The third-seeded Gauff, a two-time major winner, struggled with her serve and recorded five double faults in the first set, when she was broken four times.
There were two more service breaks in the second set and, once the match was over — in 59 minutes — Gauff stayed composed as she left the center court and tried to find somewhere quiet — without cameras — to let go of her frustrations.
Turns out, there’s pretty much no place in Rod Laver Arena except for the locker rooms that is beyond the scope of the cameras. So, the seven times she pounded her racket into a concrete ramp were far from a private moment following her 6-1, 6-2 defeat.
“Certain moments — the same thing happened to Aryna [Sabalenka] after I played her in the final of the US Open — I feel like they don’t need to broadcast,” Gauff said in her postmatch news conference. “I tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn’t a camera because I don’t necessarily like breaking rackets.
“I broke one racket [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. 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 hit just three clean winners across 15 games, made 26 unforced errors and won 2 of 11 points on her second serve. She got 74% of her first serves into play but won only 41% of those points.
It was an unusually bad day for a player who made her Grand Slam debut at 15 and won her first major, the 2023 US Open, at 19. She’s still only 21.
Gauff said she felt it was better to shatter a racket than to take out any frustrations on her support team.
“They’re good people. They don’t deserve that, and I know I’m emotional,” Gauff said. “So, yeah, 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.”
The loss to Svitolina was Gauff’s second consecutive quarterfinal exit in Melbourne, with her best result at the Slam coming in 2024 when she made a semifinal.
ESPN’s Matt Walsh and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
