Coco Gauff suffered a humiliating defeat against Elina Svitolina in the quarter-final of the 2026 Australian Open. The American, who was considered a favorite to win it all in Melbourne, came up massively short in the 6-1, 6-2 loss.
Expectably, Gauff was frustrated with herself, and when she moved out of the arena, she made her feelings known inside the facility. Video footage catches Gauff smashing her racket in anger.
Serena Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian, reposted the video and spoke positively about the frustrating moment. He lauds Gauff for expressing her emotions with raw honesty.
“NGL I love this energy and emotion from @CocoGauff — we love sports because it’s raw, because these athletes put their ALL into the battle and sometimes (like life) you don’t win,” Ohanian said, before he slammed media for writing negatively about the moment. “Media are gonna spin this private moment for a headline to get some clicks, but Coco did nothing wrong here.”
In the loss, Gauff allowed six of seven break-point opportunities to Svitolina, who literally ambushed her in the match.
Why Coco Gauff Didn’t Want To Show Her Frustrating Moment
In her post-match conference, Coco Gauff talked about smashing her racket away from the public. She did so because she didn’t want to display frustration on court or direct it toward her team.
“I kind of have a thing with the broadcast. I feel like certain moments… they don’t need to broadcast,” Gauff said. “I tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn’t a camera because I don’t necessarily like breaking racquets… I tried to go somewhere where they wouldn’t broadcast it but obviously they did. So yeh, maybe some conversations can be had because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room.”
Despite Gauff’s best efforts, her racket-smashing incident has become fodder for news outlets. When asked by a reporter if she felt relief by channeling her frustration into destroying her racket, she said:
“I know I’m emotional, so I just took the minute to go and do that. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Like I say, 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.”
Gauff’s dream third major title will have to wait, as it won’t be Melbourne where she achieves that.
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