Aussie tennis legend Pat Rafter has slammed a number of current stars who feel a lack of privacy at the Australian Open makes them feel like they are ‘animals in the zoo’.
Earlier this week, Coco Gauff asked for ‘conversations to be had’ about the presence of cameras in player areas, after backstage footage of her smashing a racquet following her resounding quarter-final defeat was beamed around the world.
Gauff then raged at Australian Open organisers after vision of her meltdown became a huge talking point.
‘I have a thing (issue) with the broadcast,’ the salty US star said in her press conference shortly after her straight-sets loss to Elina Svitolina on January 27.
‘I tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn’t a camera, because I don’t like breaking racquets.
‘I went somewhere where I thought they wouldn’t broadcast it, but obviously they did. Maybe some conversations can be had.’
Aussie tennis legend Pat Rafter has slammed a number of current stars who feel a lack of privacy at the Australian Open makes them feel like they are ‘animals in the zoo’
Coco Gauff lashed out at the lack of privacy for players at the Australian Open after being filmed having a racquet-destroying meltdown after her loss on Tuesday (pictured)
World No 2 Iga Swiatek then doubled down on Gauff’s view, stating: ‘The question is, are we tennis players…or are we 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.’
Local hope Alex de Minaur was caught on camera remonstrating with his team after he was outclassed by world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz, with many current players feeling they are on a live set of Big Brother at times.
But Rafter – who won two Grand Slam titles in his career and reached world No.1 – had a message for the likes of Gauff, Swiatek and de Minaur: be smart, let out your frustration behind closed doors, and remember where a big chunk of your pay packet comes from.
‘Well, there is a safe space… and that’s your locker room if you want to unload,’ he said on Nova FM’s Jase & Lauren show on Thursday.
‘They can’t really have cameras in there, can they?
‘I (actually) said to one of the players that it’s fine to let the emotion out on the court too, because if you’re getting really frustrated, and she (Gauff) was getting her ass kicked…she just couldn’t find a way back in…then let that frustration out.
‘Sometimes, at the end of the first set, just demolish (a racquet) and then it just clears everything.
The row over the Australian Open’s Big Brother-style filming has intensified as Iga Swiatek (pictured) said players are being treated ‘like animals in a zoo’
Alex de Minaur (seated behind Lleyton Hewitt in the black T-shirt) gesticulated angrily in a private moment with his team that was caught on camera following his quarter-final defeat at the hands of Carlos Alcaraz
‘For me (in my career), it was a reset. If you continually keep smashing your racquet as the sets go along, that’s not great, but it’s about getting the anger out.’
When co-host Clint Stanaway said ‘players also make money out of the broadcast’, Rafter replied, ‘Exactly.’
While broadcasters will argue their aim is to provide unprecedented access for fans, it isn’t a new problem at the ‘Happy Slam’.
In 2019, respected tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg said the coverage of stars at Melbourne Park was so all-encompassing that he branded the tournament ‘the Orwellian Open’.
After Gauff’s now infamous meltdown, American great Andy Roddick called for the creation of private areas where stars can let their feelings out without worrying about being caught on camera.
‘Can she go somewhere where she can just detonate?’ Roddick asked on his Served podcast.
‘Also, can there be a unisex place for people to have a private conversation and/or break something?’
