When Frances Tiafoe and Coco Gauff walked onto court without racquets

Continuing our 2025 Best Viral Moments roundup:

We’ve seen plenty of unexpected delays and strange disruptions to matches over the years, but this season delivered a new kind of holdup as two American stars took the court missing a crucial piece of equipment.

First came Frances Tiafoe at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. He was ready to face Damir Dzumhur in the second round when he realized his racquet bag was completely empty.

Read More: Frances Tiafoe forgets his racquets in funny pre-match Indian Wells scene

According to Tennis.com:

The humorous scene unfolded late on Stadium 2 Friday night... With court shoes in hand, Tiafoe looked all business as he arrived wearing a fresh Lululemon kit and white Beats headphones. However, it soon became apparent that the two-time US Open semifinalist wasn't all that ready to go at the first ATP Masters 1000 event of the season when he unzipped his racquet bag and found the pocket that was supposed to contain his Yonex sticks empty.

Quickly informing umpire Aurélie Tourte and his opponent of the situation, Tiafoe left it to his coach, David Witt, to locate the missing racquets.

The racquets were retrieved, and Tiafoe eventually pulled off a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) win—but not without catching some playful teasing on social media and from his peers, including Coco Gauff.

A few months later at Roland Garros, Tiafoe got the last laugh when Gauff joined the club. She walked onto Court Philippe Chatrier for her first-round match carrying an empty bag of her own.

Read More: Coco Gauff forgets her racquets, but brings Parisian style, in Roland Garros opening win

Gauff went viral after arriving to face Australia’s Olivia Gadecki in a stylish leather jacket and a fresh New Balance kit, only to quickly realize she was missing something essential.

"She was full out shaking her whole bag like it was an empty cookie jar on Chatrier,” Tiafoe recounted. “I was like, ‘What are you doing?'

"... I'm going to keep ripping her for a long time. I've never seen someone (ranked No. 2) in the world have zero things in her bag. That was incredible.”

Gauff explained the mishap in her on-court interview: "Honestly, as long as I’ve been on Tour, my coach has always put the racquets in the bag before the match because he’s very superstitious. He likes to grip each racquet new each day. I don’t care, I can play with a dirty grip.

“And so I go on the court and I realize I have no racquets, and I literally just made fun of Frances for it in Madrid. But now I’ll be quiet."

Gauff recovered, defeated Gadecki 6-2, 6-2, and went on to win her second Grand Slam title at Roland Garros—but she didn’t escape Tiafoe’s jokes.

"@cocogauff you gotta get more professional I'd never do something like this," Tiafoe wrote on Instagram.

"Can't believe I'm in the same stat line as @bigfoe1998 smh 🤦🏾‍♀️," Gauff replied.