Sometimes we all just need to let off steam – just ask Coco Gauff. You’ve probably seen the footage. The tennis champ was caught on CCTV in what she thought was a private area, smashing her racquet after crashing out in straight sets to Elina Svitolina. 

Despite Gauff’s outburst occurring off-court and the only victim being an inanimate object, the footage was briefly the talk of the tournament. The one and only Serena Williams leapt to her defence, triggering what was perhaps the best headline of the tournament courtesy of the ABC: ‘Williams tells Coco: Gauff queen’.

So, what’s the lesson from all this? It’s okay to let off steam now and then – just make sure no cameras from work will catch you. Or, as S. Williams put it: “Passion. Caring. Matters. Nothing wrong with hating to lose.”

Comfortable shoes matter. Don’t Google ‘Novak Djokovic Australian open blister’. We’ll leave it at that. 

Forget a Lamborghini, trip to Europe or dinner at a Michelin star restaurant, a girl’s gotta have her toast. One of the most memorable moments of the tournament came after the relatively unknown Aussie Maddie Inglis progressed to the fourth round. She lost 6-0, 6-3 against world #2 Iga Swiatek but managed to snag a tidy $480,000 in prize money. 

Asked what she would be splashing out on, the Aussie champ was clear: “I’ve wanted a Smeg toaster for so long, so long,” she said. “I think that’s going to be my treat, maybe the kettle too”.  The plug (pun intended) for a Smeg toaster worked a treat because instead of buying any products they sent them to her. Goes to show, there’s power in being clear about what you want.

Forget the courts. Quite possibly the moment of the tournament belongs to Jules Neale. For the uninitiated: Jules is the now-estranged wife of AFL golden boy Lachie Neale. Their marriage breakdown – what Jules has described on her socials as springing from “an unimaginable betrayal” – has dominated tabloid headlines. 

So, it was big news when Jules chose to make her first public appearance since the split at the AO. She didn’t shrink away from the spotlight – and why should she. 

The takeaway: Absence after setbacks can read as defeat. Sometimes presence is the best way to signal resilience. Strategic visibility reshapes the narrative on your terms.

Tennis players are known for their rituals, ticks and slightly obsessive habits. From Rafael Nadal’s water bottle alignment to Maria Sharapova’s pre-serve hair tuck. 

This year a new one caught our eyes. Before each match world #1 Aryna Sabalenka grabs a sharpie and writes across her fitness coach’s face. It could be a signature, drawing or quote, depending on what takes her fancy. She wrote “No pain no gain”, for example, before stepping out for the quarter finals this year. 

The takeaway: Okay, maybe don’t pull out a Sharpie in your next one-on-one with your manager. But the principle is solid: distill your goal into a clear phrase and make it constantly visible. Behavioral psychologists call these “implementation intentions” – specific cues that trigger desired behaviors.

It’s kind of like what Naomi Osaka did with her butterfly imbued fashion moment of the tournament (a callback to that famous moment when the insect landed on her nose in the middle of the 2021 AO). In your work, you might see implementation intentions when some executives, for example, keep a single index card with their top three priorities visible on their desk. The medium matters less than the practice of keeping what matters most constantly in view.