American tennis player Coco Gauff believes Australian Open players should have more privacy to vent their emotions after a video of her smashing her racquet in a Melbourne Park corridor went viral.

The meltdown occurred after the 21-year-old was beaten 6-1 6-2 by Ukranian veteran Elina Svitolina in less than an hour during their quarter final match on Tuesday night at Rod Laver Arena.

Svitolina broke Gauff’s serve at all four attempts in the first set as the American appeared to struggle with the tension in her racquet, calling for a change when down 4-1.

Another Svitolina break early in the second set gave her a 3-0 lead and a stranglehold on the match.

A clearly upset Gauff vented her frustration after leaving the court.

Video footage that has since been widely broadcast shows her walking along a corridor, then lifting her racquet and smashing it on the ground a number of times.

During a post-match interview, Gauff acknowledged that Svitolina had played “really well”, and that she had become increasingly exasperated with her own performance on court.

“I tried my best to be positive but I felt like nothing for me at the moment was working and, yeh, that’s a bit frustrating when you’re out there and you feel like your strengths aren’t doing their thing.”

She denied there had been any kind of miscalculation with the tension on her racquet, explaining that she simply thought a change might help.

Gauff added that after the game ended, she tried to go somewhere where there were no cameras.

“I kind of have a thing with the broadcast. I feel like certain moments… 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 racquets… I tried to go somewhere where they wouldn’t broadcast it but obviously they did.

“So yeh, maybe some conversations can be had because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room.”

Asked by a reporter of it venting her frustration in such a way helped her to move on, Gauff agreed it did, adding that she didn’t want to lash out unfairly on her team.

“I know I’m emotional, so I just took the minute to go and do that. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing.

“Like I say, I don’t try to do it on court, in front of kids and things like that, but I do know I need to let out that emotion otherwise I’m just going to be snappy with the people around me and I don’t want to do that.”

Former American tennis great Andy Roddick is one of several players who have spoken out in support of Gauff. He suggested on his Served with Andy Roddick podcast that there should be some kind of unisex space where players could “have a private conversation or break something” away from the cameras.

“If there’s no place outside the locker rooms to lose it, how are you ever going to have an intense conversation with your coach if they’re not the same gender?” he said.

“You shouldn’t have to wait until you get back to the hotel or into a car.”

At the same time, Roddick praised the performance of Svitolina, who will now meet world No.1 and dual Open champion Aryna Sabalenka ­on Thursday for a spot in what would be her first grand slam final.

Sabalenka, coincidentally, smashed her racquet in a training area after being beaten by Gauff at the US Open in 2023, and on Rod Laver Arena after losing last year’s Open grand final to Madison Keys.

–with AAP