MELBOURNE, Australia — American tennis sensation Coco Gauff expressed her sorrow over the potential end of TikTok in the United States by writing “RIP TikTok USA” accompanied by a broken heart on a TV camera lens immediately following her match at the Australian Open, where she advanced to the quarterfinals.
Gauff achieved a 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory against Belinda Bencic at the Grand Slam event’s main stadium on Sunday afternoon local time, just an hour after TikTok was removed from major app stores in the United States on Saturday.
Following her win, tennis players are typically given a marker to express their thoughts through the courtside camera. Gauff took a moment to reflect and decided, “I think I’m going to go with this one,” before inscribing her message about TikTok with a blue pen.
Previously, during the French Open in June 2022, after reaching her first Grand Slam final as a teenager, Gauff addressed the alarming rise in mass shootings in the U.S. at that time, writing “Peace. End gun violence.”
Currently 20 years old, Gauff ranks among the elite players in tennis, having captured the 2023 U.S. Open title and holding a world ranking of No. 3.
Gauff has regularly engaged with her followers on TikTok, where she often participates in trending challenges. Earlier in the Australian Open, she remarked, “I feel this is the third or fourth time this has happened. This time it’s just like, ‘Whatever.’ If I wake up and it doesn’t work, fine. I’m done wasting my time figuring it out.” She then mentioned a new app called RedNote, noting the trend of users transitioning to different platforms.
She expressed her hope for TikTok’s survival, advocating for its importance to small businesses and creators who rely on the application for revenue and storytelling. “Personally, for me, a lot of great stories I’ve heard are from TikTok, and connecting with people has been through TikTok. I hope it will stay, but obviously, I don’t know all the security issues and things like that,” she shared.
A federal law in the U.S. was on the brink of banning the widely-used social media platform. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was required to sell the app or face a complete ban in the U.S., which led to restrictions preventing Apple and Google app stores from offering it.
When users attempted to access TikTok, they were met with a pop-up notification that disabled scrolling through videos.
Aryna Sabalenka, the top-ranked player from Belarus and two-time defending champion in Melbourne, commented on the situation after her victory on Sunday, saying, “This is not something we can control, and I hope they’re going to figure it out because I love TikTok.”
