Wimbledon Won’t Remove Backstage Cameras After Coco Gauff, Others Call for Privacy

After Coco Gauff was caught smashing a racket from a backstage camera during the Australian Open, a few tennis players called for other major tournaments to not use as many cameras within the facilities. The players are hoping for some privacy during those emotionally charged moments. World No. 2 Iga Swiatek questioned if people considered the players “animals in a zoo” even.

Wimbledon is the first known major tournament to respond to this request, stating that the tournament will not be removing any of its behind-the-scenes cameras this year, per The Times.

However, Wimbledon’s tournament shared a letter to The Times providing more detail about some changes they plan to make. For instance, they plan to prioritize players’ well-being. Therefore, the tournament will review all the backstage footage before putting any of the content on television. The tournament plans to make the cameras visible to players and will show them where the cameras are beforehand so it isn’t as much of a surprise when they are being recorded.

The tournament still sees the value in having behind-the-scenes moments captured by video for fan experience, so it doesn’t sound like cameras will be fully eliminated any time soon.

Hopefully players won’t feel like their privacy has been violated as much as they did at the Australian Open or in other previous tournaments.

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