Coco Gauff Writes 'RIP TikTok' On Camera Lens After Australian Open Win In Peak Gen Z Fashion

Coco Gauff punched her ticket to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open after a comeback effort against Belinda Bencic on Saturday evening. While the American is certainly set on advancing to the semifinals for the second straight year, she couldn't help but express some disappointment about the TikTok ban in the U.S. on her way off the court.

Gauff grabbed a Sharpie to sign a camera lens as players often do after a win. After a couple of seconds of trying to come up with a message instead of simply signing her name, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok’ with a broken heart.

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal law that would ban the Chinese-owned social media platform. The ban was expected to take effect after midnight as the U.S. calendar turned to January 19, but the app went dark for the 170 million+ Americans a few hours earlier than expected.

With Gauff being just 20 years old, it should come as no surprise that she is upset with TikTok being banned in the U.S. It's also hilarious to think that a social media app is near the top of mind for the No. 3 player in the world just a few minutes after she won a match to advance to the Final 16 of a Grand Slam on the other side of the world. 

Gen Z is built different.

Gauff was asked about the message she wrote on the camera lens during her formal post-match interview and explained that getting on the app was part of her pre-match routine.

"Hopefully it comes back. It's really sad. I love TikTok. It's like an escape. I honestly do that before matches," Gauff explained. She went on to say that "it'll force me to read books more, be more of a productive human probably, maybe it's a blessing in disguise."

I love that ‘read more books’ is our go-to when there is a forced change in our everyday lives. As a millennial myself, reading more books was a New Year's resolution, and while the new year is still very young, I've read exactly zero pages thus far.