"I can't do it the way Roger Federer can" - CoCo Vandeweghe gives insight on emotional outbursts, compares herself with John McEnroe & Carlos Alcaraz

Former top-10 player CoCo Vandeweghe recently drew comparisons with the likes of Roger Federer, John McEnroe, and Carlos Alcaraz, while discussing tennis players' reactions during crucial moments of a match. She believes it is tough for most pros to maintain their composure, as the amount of effort they put into their on-court performances.

Vandeweghe was one of the top players on the WTA Tour towards the end of the 2010s. The American peaked at World No. 9 in the singles rankings and won the 2018 US Open title in doubles partnering Ashleigh Barty. She retired from tennis in 2023 and has worked as an analyst since then.

During her time on the circuit, CoCo Vandeweghe came to be known for her angry on-court outbursts. In that context, the 32-year-old recently gave reasoning for the attitude that she displayed as a tennis pro while speaking on the Tennis Channel Inside-In podcast.

Vandeweghe claimed that she felt increasingly less embarrassed by her outbursts as her career moved upwards. The former US Open champion also said that unlike Roger Federer, who is renowned for his calm demeanor during tough matches, she needed to let steam off her head after losing an important point.

That said, she did infer that pros shouldn't try to imitate the mercurial John McEnroe and practice moderation while expressing their frustrations.

"We have our anger moments. We have disappointments because we work so hard to perform in such a small moment in time," CoCo Vandeweghe said on the Tennis Channel Inside-In podcast [32:40]. "And I think I learned more and more that it was okay. I matured not only in my tennis but also within myself, like, 'Okay, I cannot do it the way Roger Federer can.'

"I am certainly not gonna be John McEnroe out there but I need to have a release. And that was more beneficial, I always thought, than steaming and going for a game because the pros cannot afford that amount of time."

---

"We can definitely strive to be Roger Federer or Carlos Alcaraz... but that's not everybody" - CoCo Vandeweghe

Roger Federer had an angry outburst only once in his career

During the interaction with Tennis Channel, CoCo Vandeweghe insisted that while players are free to try to emulate Roger Federer and Carlos Alcaraz — who have hardly broken any racquets during their respective careers — they are bound to have different ways of regulating their emotions from the two greats.

"Yeah, because not everyone can be an Ice King or Queen out there and just keep it all internal. I think that no two people are alike," Vandeweghe said (32:10). "So okay, we can definitely strive to [be] a Roger Federer, that we're never gonna break a racquet. Or a Carlos Alcaraz, when he broke his racquet in Cincinnati, everyone was up and like, 'Holy c**p, this is crazy!' But that's not everybody else in the world."

Notably enough, Federer played over 1,500 matches on the ATP Tour and there have been very few occasions when he smashed his racket, one of them being after making an uncharacteristic error against Novak Djokovic at the 2009 Miami Open.

Alcaraz, on his part, destroyed his racquet two months ago during a straight-sets loss to Gael Monfils in the second round of the Cincinnati Open.