World No. 3 Coco Gauff suffered a shocking exit from the Australian Open 2026 after her loss against the 12th seed, Elina Svitolina. The American again struggled during her serves, committing multiple double faults and unforced errors in the match.
However, Gauff’s post-match off-court activity made headlines immediately as she was seen smashing her racket out of frustration.
Coco Gauff Addresses Post-Match Act After Losing to Elina Svitolina in Australian Open QF
The entire tennis world was shocked when Ukraine’s Svitolina eliminated the third seed from the 2026 Australian Open. Gauff entered the matchup as the favorite, given her recent performances, but suffered an unfortunate 1-6, 2-6 defeat in just under an hour.
After the match, Gauff went off-court, which she thought would get her off the cameras, and smashed her racket due to frustration; however, footage from the security cameras immediately went viral on social media.
MORE: Shocking Scenes as Coco Gauff Spotted Angrily Smashing Racket After Australian Open Crashout
During the post-match press conference, a reporter asked her about the off-court outburst, whether she had done it before, and how it helped her.
Gauff laughed immediately, saying, “I tried going somewhere where there are no cameras.” She then explained the situation, stating, “I have a thing with the broadcast. The same thing happened to Aryna after I played her in the final of US Open (2023). I feel like they don’t need to broadcast. I tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn’t a camera because I don’t necessarily like breaking rackets, but I lost one and two.”
Gauff then recalled a moment from her past where she had smashed her racket on court after her quarterfinal loss against Barbora Krejčíková at the 2021 French Open. Despite having an early 3-0 lead, Gauff lost the match in straight sets, committing multiple unforced errors.
“I broke one racket on court quarters, I think, or the round of 16 of the French Open. And I said I would never do it again on court because I don’t feel like that’s a good representation, but yeah, I tried to go somewhere where they wouldn’t broadcast it, but obviously they did,” she said with an awkward laugh.
“Maybe some conversations we can have because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room,” she concluded.
Gauff’s frustration was evident as she committed five double faults against the Ukrainian while winning just 41% of her first serve points. Concerns were raised even more on her second serve, as she just managed to win just two out of 11 points during the entire match.
She also committed 26 unforced errors, on which Svitolina capitalized, breaking Gauff six out of seven times, while the American could only convert one break opportunity.
Svitolina continued to deliver exceptional performance at the year’s first Grand Slam, with excellent serve and return statistics throughout the match. She committed 16 unforced errors and did not commit a single double fault, showing precision. Svitolina is now set to face World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday, January 29, with the Belarusian entering as the clear favorite.
Coco Faults, drop the Gauff