Coco Gauff said Tuesday that an intense racquet smash after a heavy loss to Elina Svitolina at the Australian Open was important for releasing her frustration, and she was disappointed it was caught on camera.
The world number three suffered a 6-1, 6-2 defeat to the Ukrainian in the Melbourne quarter-finals and left centre court looking dejected after the handshake.
Television footage showed the American repeatedly smashing her racquet in a secluded part of the stadium afterward.
“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,” said the 21-year-old.
“So I just took the minute to go and do that. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. 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. Just need to let the frustration out.”
Gauff added that it was frustrating for a private moment to be filmed.
“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. I broke one racquet on quarters, I think, or round of 16 of French Open 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 maybe some conversations can be had because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room.”
Despite the heavy defeat, the two-time major winner credited Svitolina.
“Credit it to her because she forced me to play like that. It’s not like I just woke up and today was a bad day, but bad days are often caused by your opponent. So she did well. 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. Today I just wasn’t able to do that.”
The 12th seed Svitolina will face world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals on Thursday.