While Coco Gauff’s Australian Open journey may be over, she’s still taking over the conversation. And now, other Black athletes like Serena Williams and more are speaking out in her defense.
Suggested Reading
As we previously told you, the tennis star became the topic of timelines after she lost during the quarterfinal on Tuesday to her opponent Elina Svitolina. Given her drive to win, Gauff was understandably disappointed about not advancing and later let out her frustration during a private moment off the court after the game was over.
However, what she didn’t realize was that cameras were still following her and captured her smashing her racket against the ground in anger.
After that clip began making the rounds on social media and after seeing so many people respond negatively to her human moment, Gauff spoke out about it during a post-game interview and called out the Australian Open for the lack of privacy she was given.
“Certain moments—the same thing happened to Aryna [Sabalenka] after I played her in the final of the US Open—I feel like they don’t need to broadcast,” she explained. “I tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn’t a camera because I don’t necessarily like breaking rackets…I broke one racket [at the] French Open, I think, and I said I would never do it again on court because I don’t feel like that’s a good representation. So, yeah, maybe some conversations can be had.”
Seeing the unfair online chatter, fellow tennis great Serena Williams also decided to enter the discourse, reposting kind words that her husband Alexis Ohanian posted on X/Twitter and adding her own two cents.
“Passion. 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,” Williams wrote.
Olympic boxing champion Claressa Shields also spoke out in defense of Gauff, writing on X/Twitter: “See this is ridiculous she went where it was private to release her frustration and y’all still followed her and then POSTED IT! where is the protection!? #TeamCocoGauff She should’ve broke the racquet on whoever was recording her.”
Tara Davis‑Woodhall, an Olympic long jump champion, also shared her support for Gauff, penning in a post to Threads: ““If I had a racket I’d smash it too.”
The Women’s Tennis Association put out a statement expressing that they standby their players and they “deserve spaces away from competition where they can recover in private.”
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.