Coco Gauff called out television networks that aired her crash-out footage following her loss in the Australian Open quarter finals on Tuesday.
Coco, the No. 3 seed, served 5 double-faults and lost 6-1, 6-2 to 12th-seeded Elina Svitolina in the 59-minute match.
Coco held her composure as she entered the tunnel after the match.
A surveillance camera in the hallway leading to the locker room shows Coco repeatedly smashing her tennis racket on the floor.
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 pic.twitter.com/oZ60rOzfmL
— SportsDeeva (@Blesing_Andrew) January 27, 2026
After the footage went viral, the 21-year-old complained that other tennis players show their frustration after a loss, but the footage is never aired on TV.
“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 US Open. I feel like they don’t need to be broadcast.”
Coco called for change, saying cameras should not be in private areas of the locker room.
The humiliated tennis star said she believed she was in a private area when she took out her frustration on her tennis racket.
“I tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn’t a camera, because I don’t necessarily like breaking racquets… I broke one racquet [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.”
The Atlanta-born tennis champ recently purchased a multi-million public tennis facility at Brownwood Park in East Atlanta, where she learned to play tennis as a child.
Coco plans to transform the tennis facility into “Gauff Futures” to develop future tennis stars in the Black community.
