Just In: Coco Gauff left frustrated as she tells US Open rivals ‘don’t do that’ after unusual antics during win
Coco Gauff admitted that she was trying to stop hitting herself with her racket during matches because she and her team “hated” it. The No. 4 seed became a little frustrated during her 6-3 6-4 victory over Cristina Bucsa on Saturday. Gauff had to come from an early break down to win the first set, and survived a flurry of three successive breaks in set two before getting the win.
Players often let off some steam by hitting their rackets, either against the ground or against themselves. Madison Keys repeatedly whacked her head with her racket during a heartbreaking 1-6 7-6 7-5 defeat to Qinwen Zheng in the third round hours before Gauff’s match. But the former US Open champion tried an alternative, hitting a ball against her head.
And the world No. 4 has now admitted that she was actively trying to avoid striking herself with her racket, also urging any aspiring tennis players not to copy that behaviour. “It’s definitely not something I want to do. My team hates when I do that, and I hate it too, so I definitely don’t encourage it,” Gauff stated.
“I did win I think, like, eight points in a row after that, so I don’t know. But I definitely, I think sometimes we don’t want to break a racket, and in hindsight in our heads we may think it’s better, but I think it’s worse to hit yourself.”
Some players may choose to hit themselves instead of destroying their rackets because racket abuse is a code violation which carries a fine. But Gauff believes it’s better to be penalised than hurt herself.
She continued: “I think I should just break the racket, honestly, and just take the fine. I definitely think it’s something that I should not do. I don’t think it’s a good thing. I can’t speak for other players, but definitely it’s not something that I want to do.
“I mean, I will say with the ball, it doesn’t hurt. I have done it with the racket before. Don’t do that. With the ball it doesn’t hurt as bad, but it’s definitely not something… If you’re a kid, don’t do that, and I’m going to work on myself to not do that anymore when I’m frustrated.”
But Gauff has also explained why she felt so frustrated against Bucsa. The Spaniard is a tricky opponent, and the 2023 champion also hadn’t played a day session match yet at this year’s US Open.
“I’ve played her before, and I felt a similar way. I think we played at Indian Wells, and I felt similarly. Honestly, I just didn’t really remember feeling frustrated until I got on court,” the 22-year-old explained.
Some players, you mentally prepare. You’re like, ‘This is going to be one of those matches’. I don’t know if I did that too well today. I think I came in expecting it to be another way, because we hadn’t played a long time. I think she just does a good job of changing the pace. She can get a lot of balls in. She doesn’t make too many unforced errors. I think that was the frustrating part.
“Also, it was my first day match, so just getting used to those conditions. So it was like a factor of things.”
