{"id":442855,"date":"2026-01-28T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/442855\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T12:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:00:08","slug":"animals-in-the-zoo-iga-swiatek-backs-coco-gauff-over-australian-open-privacy-concerns-australian-open-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/442855\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Animals in the zoo\u2019: Iga Swiatek backs Coco Gauff over Australian Open privacy concerns | Australian Open 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iga Swiatek backed up Coco Gauff\u2019s complaints about a lack of privacy at the Australian Open<\/a> by claiming tennis players are treated like zoo animals.<\/p>\n

Gauff sought a spot away from public view to let her frustration out by smashing a racket<\/a> following her quarter-final loss to Elina Svitolina on Tuesday, only to find out she was on camera after all.<\/p>\n

The clip was quickly picked up by broadcasters and on social media, with an unhappy Gauff saying: \u201cMaybe some conversations can be had, because I feel like, at this tournament, the only private place we have is the locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swiatek was caught on camera forgetting her accreditation in a clip that was also widely shared on social media, and she echoed Gauff\u2019s complaints.<\/p>\n

The world No 2 said: \u201cThe question is, are we tennis players, or are we animals in the zoo where they are observed even when they poop? That was exaggerating, obviously, but it would be nice to have some privacy. It would be nice also to have your own process and not always be observed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it should be like that because we\u2019re tennis players, we\u2019re meant to be watched on the court and in the press, that\u2019s our job. It\u2019s not our job to be a meme when you forget your accreditation. It\u2019s funny, for sure. People have something to talk about. But, for us, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amanda Anisimova admitted she headed straight for the locker room, where she knew she would not be filmed, after her quarter-final loss to Jessica Pegula. \u201cThere are good moments that people see, and that\u2019s fun,\u201d said the American.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, when you lose, there are probably not-so-good moments. I think the fact that the video of Coco was posted, it\u2019s tough, because she didn\u2019t have a say in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gauff has been criticised in some quarters for smashing her racket but she was given support by Serena Williams, who posted on X: \u201cPassion. Caring. Matters. Nothing wrong with hating to lose. Now Coco when you want I can show you how to demolish in one swipe… Serena style.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iga Swiatek backed up Coco Gauff\u2019s complaints about a lack of privacy at the Australian Open by claiming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-442855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}