The tennis world faces renewed scrutiny over athlete privacy after Coco Gauff expressed frustration over being filmed during a vulnerable moment following her exit from the Australian Open. Gauff was captured on camera venting her emotions after a difficult, straight-set loss to Ukrainian Elina Svitolina in Tuesday’s quarterfinal round. Now, she’s calling for more boundaries between the competitive arena, which is visible to the public, and the private spaces athletes use to decompress.

"Certain moments – the same thing happened to Aryna [Sabalenka] after I played her in the final of the U.S. Open – I feel like they don’t need to broadcast," Gauff said following the match. Gauff said that she purposefully sought out a secluded area to avoid public view. "I tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn’t a camera because I don’t necessarily like breaking rackets."

The incident highlights a recurring theme in the sport where emotional outbursts are often heavily scrutinized, though Gauff’s experience suggests the phenomenon is not exclusive to any single demographic. History shows that high-intensity emotional releases are a staple of professional tennis across genders and backgrounds.

In 2015, CoCo Vandeweghe made headlines during the U.S. Open when she destroyed her racket on the court after losing her temper during a match. Last August, Daniil Medvedev was fined $42,500 in the U.S. Open after a tirade directed at a chair umpire and a subsequent racket smash.

The pressure of the Grand Slam stage has also affected Aryna Sabalenka, who recently apologized to Gauff for "unprofessional" comments made after Gauff beat her in last year’s French Open final.

Male players have historically displayed similar temperaments. In 2001, a teenage Andy Roddick was compared to past legends of the sport after an "F-word" tirade at the U.S. Open, where he called an official an "absolute moron" during a critical fifth set. Perhaps the most famous example occurred in 1981, when John McEnroe delivered his iconic "You cannot be serious" outburst at Wimbledon, a moment that resulted in a point penalty and remains one of the most broadcasted meltdowns in sports history.

Gauff's plea for privacy suggests a shift in how modern athletes view the omnipresence of cameras, arguing that the human element of the sport requires a space where the cameras do not follow.