Coco Gauff’s Viral Explosion of Frustration Reveals a Bigger Issue With the Australian Open

Tennis star Coco Gauff‘s time in the 2026 Australian Open may be over, but she’s not done with the competition and is calling the institution out for how it handled her after her recent loss. And by the looks of folks’ response online, she’s completely justified in doing so.

For context, Gauff recently lost during the quarterfinal on Tuesday to her opponent Elina Svitolina. Seeing as how she was so close and apparently wasn’t playing to the best of her ability, the young tennis star was understandably disappointed about not advancing. Gauff later spoke on her devastating loss during a post-game interview where she credited her bad playing on Svitolina and commended her on a job well done.

“I credit it to her. 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 opponents. So she did well,” Gauff said in part.

But what really has both her and others on the internet so up in arms is that after her on-court loss, cameras followed Gauff back inside the arena where she was decompressing after losing the game. While she was initially calm and can be seen just taking a walk, the footage then captured her smashing her racket against the floor several times out of frustration.

Now, seeing an athlete smash a racket, kick a ball, or express any sort of anger after suffering a loss on the court is nothing new. But it should be noted here that Gauff made sure to let go of her feelings during a private moment, away from fans, away from a crowd and away from cameras—or so she thought.

Consequently, once the footage began to make the rounds on social media and Gauff saw it, she spoke out against the Australian Open for publicizing her private moment while still acknowledging that her actions probably weren’t the best thing to do.

“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 later said in per post-match interview. “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.”

She later continued: “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.”

And she’s exactly right—which is why people were quick to side with her once they saw the footage and her subsequent explanation.

“I honestly don’t see anything wrong with Coco Gauff smashing her racket out of anger and frustration. That loss to Elina Svitolina was painful and humiliating. Players are human too, and they should be allowed to show emotion in moments like that,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.

“Showing Coco Gauff smashing her racquet backstage is such an invasion of privacy. She was perfectly respectful to Svitolina after the match and she should be allowed to release her frustrations without cameras. The same applies for all players,” said another.

One user wrote, “Y’all act like y’all ain’t never crashed out before. Like you’ve never had a moment. Y’all act like Coco Gauff and other athletes and celebrities are not human and that’s really the concerning part. We are ALL HUMAN! We ALL EMOTE.”

Added another: “men can act like 6ft toddlers who don’t get their way when the lose or don’t get a call, but let women show some frustration and it’s an issue…”