Quote of the Day: Katie Boulter side-eyes the Australian Open's "Big Brother" cameras

When the Australian Open introduced its extensive livestream setup to capture players in behind-the-scenes moments in 2016, it was hailed as forward-thinking and branded as controversial all at once.

Over the years, tennis fans have ravenously consumed the great candid moments these surveillance cameras have captured—like watching fascinated as a locked-in Aryna Sabalenka and her team went through their pre-match routines before the defending champion played her final match. They’ve also captured the brutal, raw scenes in the sport—like Petra Martic breaking down in tears in 2019 after losing a tough match, and taking what she thought was a private moment to collect herself unaware that her emotions were being broadcast live on television.

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“We live in Big Brother society,” said Novak Djokovic at the time. “I guess you just have to accept it.”

Nearly a decade later, and the fixed cameras have become a fixture in Melbourne Park. Most popular by far are the mundane interactions that give fans a glimpse of the real person behind the player as they go about their day. This year, we’ve enjoyed seeing Jannik Sinner cross paths with Carlos Alcaraz in the corridors, Andrey Rublev meticulously fixing his hair band before practice, and Danielle Collins wandering about lost in the warmup area.

But these are also the moments that have left some players scratching their heads. Britain’s Katie Boulter, for example, sounded both bemused and horrified when she learned that her own pre-match walkabout had been streamed to the world.

Q: Are you aware of the cameras around behind the scenes? … I was watching one of the streams on YouTube earlier. They followed you around the player warmup area, corridors.

KATIE BOULTER: That sounds terrible. I don't know why someone would want to see that.

Q: Sounds like Big Brother.

KATIE BOULTER: I am aware of the cameras, yeah. You can see them. They are in prime locations. There's the odd time you forget.

I don't know exactly where every single one is. I know if you go in the warmup area, there is going to be a camera or something like that, but I don't think too much about it.

The good news for Boulter is that we’ve come a long way since the first cameras were introduced to Melbourne Park in 2016 with the goal of humanizing the sport and creating a wealth of new content. Back then, they came with hot mics that led to the awkward (and potentially dangerous) situation in which the private conversations between players, agents, coaches and any other unsuspecting persons were inadvertently being picked up and streamed to YouTube.

Thankfully we’ve learned from those mistakes, and surveillance cameras are now a popular feature that comes along with every Australian Open. The concept has even spread in tennis, with tournaments like the US Open now employing a similarly extensive network to produce a nonstop stream of cute moments.

But we didn’t need any hidden cameras to witness the emotion throughout Boulter’s dramatic first-round win over Rebecca Marino, which saw the No. 22 seed edge through in a deciding set, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. Her fiance, No. 8 seed Alex de Minaur, wrapped up his own straight-sets win over Botic van de Zandschulp and took his place by the Boulter camp to show his support.

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“He is my support system. He is someone who has helped me through the rough moments and the good moments,” Boulter told press after the match.

“I think he's shown what an incredible tennis player he is, and he's ranked Top 10 in the world and has been there for a whole year, which is not an easy thing to do. That shows me a lot of things, and I have learnt so many different ways of becoming a better tennis player…

“Having him come out and support means pretty much everything to me. Having the extra positivity from my bench makes the difference.”