{"id":432920,"date":"2026-01-27T14:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/432920\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T14:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:49:08","slug":"coco-gauff-smashes-racket-in-frustration-after-59-minute-collapse-in-australian-open-quarterfinal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/432920\/","title":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff smashes racket in frustration after 59-minute collapse in Australian Open quarterfinal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Coco Gauff<\/a>\u2019s hopes of winning this year\u2019s Australian Open<\/a> came crashing down in just 59 minutes on Tuesday, as she was beaten in straight sets in the quarterfinals by Ukrainian star Elina Svitolina<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n The American had been playing so well in Melbourne that many tipped her to win her first Australian Open and third grand slam overall, but she struggled to find any of that previous form against Svitolina in sweltering conditions.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Ukrainian, who has also been on a hot streak this year, capitalized on Gauff\u2019s poor performance to win 6-1, 6-2 in less than an hour and booked her place in the semifinal against world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.\n <\/p>\n

\n Clearly frustrated by her level during the quarterfinal, Gauff was filmed<\/a> smashing her racket against a concrete ramp after making her way off the court at Rod Laver Arena. It was a moment of frustration that she thought was private.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn\u2019t a camera because I don\u2019t necessarily like breaking rackets,\u201d Gauff told<\/a> reporters after the match.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI tried to go somewhere where they wouldn\u2019t broadcast it, but obviously, they did. So, yeah, maybe some conversations can be had because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n A lot of Gauff\u2019s frustration likely stemmed from her poor serving performance in the first set, where the world No. 3 produced five double<\/a> faults that saw her broken in four service games.\n <\/p>\n

\n While her serving improved in the second set, the 21-year-old still made 12 unforced errors, which saw any hopes of a comeback extinguished.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI just felt like all the things I do well, I just wasn\u2019t doing well today,\u201d Gauff said. \u201cThe backhand wasn\u2019t firing. Forehand wasn\u2019t really firing. Returns.\n <\/p>\n

\"Gauff<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere was just a lot that didn\u2019t go well today. I credit it to her because she forced me to play like that. It\u2019s not like I just woke up and, yeah, today was a bad day, but bad days are often caused by your opponent. So she did well.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Gauff said she doesn\u2019t necessarily regret smashing her racket behind the scenes, knowing the importance of letting off steam after such a frustrating day at the office.\n <\/p>\n

\n She would much prefer to do that, she said, rather than take it out on her coaching team in the player\u2019s box.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to lash out on my team. They\u2019re good people. They don\u2019t deserve that, and I know I\u2019m emotional,\u201d she added.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI just took the minute to go and do that. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a bad thing. Like I said, I don\u2019t 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.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOtherwise, I\u2019m just going to be snappy with the people around me, and I don\u2019t want to do that because, like I said, they don\u2019t deserve it. They did their best. I did mine. Just need to let the frustration out.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff\u2019s hopes of winning this year\u2019s Australian Open came crashing down in just 59 minutes on Tuesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-432920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}