Coco Gauff spent about an hour on court in her quarterfinal loss to Elina Svitolina at the Australian Open on Tuesday, January 27.
Normally, when a player spends so much time on the court during a match, it is not a good sign for the player who ends up losing. That’s exactly what happened to Gauff, the tournament’s third seed, when she was defeated by Svitolina 6-1, 6-2 in just 59 minutes.
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Svitolina, seeded No. 12 and still seeking her first Grand Slam championship, moves on and will play No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals.
After the match, Gauff left Rod Laver Arena and headed to the locker room, where her frustrations boiled over and she was seen on camera smashing her racket on the floor.
“At certain points, the same thing happened to Aryna (Sabalenka) after I faced her in the US Open final, I feel like they don’t need to be broadcast,” Gauff said after the match. “I tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn’t a camera because I don’t necessarily like breaking rackets.”
The problems started early for Gauff, a two-time Grand Slam champion, when she lost serve four times in the first set and committed five double faults.
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Gauff, who made 26 unforced errors in the match, also said she thought it would be better to vent her anger alone rather than yell at her staff.
“I don’t want to bash my team. They’re good people. They don’t deserve that, and I know I’m excited,” Gauff said. “I just took a minute to do that. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Like I said, I don’t try to do it on the court in front of kids and stuff like that, but I do know I need to let that emotion out.
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January 18: Carlos Alcaraz of Spain in action against Adam Walton of Australia in the first round of men’s singles at the Australian Open at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park.
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January 18: Carlos Alcaraz of Spain in action against Adam Walton of Australia in the first round of men’s singles at the Australian Open at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park.
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January 18: Anastasia Potapova of Austria in action during her first round match against Suzan Lamens of the Netherlands.
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January 18 – Emma Raducanu of the United Kingdom celebrates her victory over Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand in the women’s singles first round of the Australian Open at Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne Park.
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January 18: Sebastian Korda of the United States in action against Michael Zheng of the United States in the first round of men’s singles at the Australian Open.
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January 18: Alexander Zverev of Germany plays a backhand against Gabriel Diallo of Canada in the men’s singles first round during the first day of the 2026 Australian Open.
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January 18: Venus Williams reacts to a point against Serbia’s Olga Danilovic during their women’s singles match on the first day of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne.
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January 18: Hailey Baptiste of the United States in action against Taylor Townsend of the United States in the women’s singles first round of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park.
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January 18: Zeynep Sonmez of Türkiye celebrates after winning her first round match against Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova.
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Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan in action against Jenson Brooksby of the United States in the first round of the men’s singles.
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January 18: Frances Tiafoe of the United States in action against Jason Kubler of Australia in the first round of the men’s singles at the Australian Open at the John Cain Arena in Melbourne Park.
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January 18: Michael Zheng of the United States in action against Sebastian Korda of the United States.
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Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine ices her ankle during her match against Elsa Jacquemot of France in the first round.
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January 18: Corentin Moutet of France serves against Tristan Schoolkate of Australia during their men’s singles match on day one.
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January 18: Gabriel Diallo of Canada serves against Alexander Zverev of Germany in the First Round of men’s singles.
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January 18: Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina serves to China’s Zhang Zhizhen during their men’s singles match on the first day.
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January 17: Ash Barty of Australia, Roger Federer of Switzerland, Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and Andre Agassi of the United States are interviewed after the Opening Ceremony exhibition match ahead of the 2026 Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia.
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January 17: Roger Federer of Switzerland, left, and Andre Agassi of the United States laugh during the opening ceremony ahead of the 2026 Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia.
“Otherwise, I’m going to be rough with the people around me and I don’t want to do that because, like I said, they don’t deserve it. They did the best they could. I did my thing. I just need to let the frustration out.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coco Gauff breaks racket after Australian Open quarterfinal loss
