After Coco Gauff lost to Elina Svitolina, she was coolly off the court, found a ramp underneath Rod Laver Arena, and proceeded to smash her racket six times. It was once for every time her serve had been broken by Svitolina. Gauff didn't want to express her rage in front of the Australian Open crowd, but cameras still caught her in the act.
A growing number of players are expressing frustration with a lack of privacy in Melbourne. People don't want to vent their anger in the locker room because other players are preparing for their matches or getting treatment. That should be an area of calm, but it is also the one place cameras can't go.
In other words, Gauff had no other choice but to release her anger in the public eye. Iga Swiatek might have wanted to do the same after losing her quarterfinal match against Elena Rybakina, but she couldn't. She would have suffered the same fate as Gauff.
Iga Swiatek delivers the brutal trush about a key issue at the Australian Open
Speaking with the media after losing to Rybakina, the Pole compared players at the Australian Open to "animals in a zoo." Instead of having the tennis respected and appreciated in observation, some feel as if they are constantly being watched in high-stress situations, but are unable to be themselves. It can be unsettling.
Swiatek said, "The question is, are we tennis players or are we, like, animals in the zoo where they are observed even when they poop, you know? OK, that was exaggerating obviously, but it would be nice to have some privacy. It would be nice also to, I don't know, have your own process and not always be, like, observed."
The issue is complicated, of course. Professional athletes can make a lot of money, but that money comes from the pockets of fans. They get paid from winning tournaments and sponsorships, of course, but if there were no fans, none of the other two would exist. Sports is a money-making business always in search of ways to make more money.
So, while we as fans pay the bills of pro athletes, we are also lucky enough to watch them play. In that way, it is easy to forget they are also human beings with real emotions. Moreover, we see them operate at peak emotion, so when someone like Andrey Rublev explodes on the court, we might not like it, but they also would rather vent quietly, and they can't.
Such is the situation at the Australian Open. Coco Gauff needed to get out her anger, but had no place to go. That needs to change.