Gauff receives racist abuse online after China Open incident

Coco Gauff has had to endure online racial abuse after her latest victory at the China Open; The American star beat 16-year-old Sun Xinran in straight sets though there was an incident at a key moment when Gauff had to stop a point; Gauff explained the "unfortunate situation" Monday 5 October 2026 22:11, UK Coco Gauff has said she has been racially abused on social media following an incident in her win over Sun Xinran at the China Open.The world No 4 won 7-5 6-1 against the 16-year-old from China to progress to the last 16 in Beijing.Gauff was serving to stay in the first set at 4-5 when Sun thought she had hit a winner, but the American had already raised her hand to stop the point as a light in the side panels around the court was flickering. Gauff took the next three points to hold for 5-5, and then dropped just one more game in the match.The 22-year-old tried to explain the situation on X, saying: "It was an unfortunate situation but it is out of my control."Xinran is incredible talent and player, I apologised for the situation at the end of the match and she completely understood." Gauff then responded to a racist reply to her post by saying: "Hey everyone, you can dislike me or disagree about what happened without being racist."The amount of racist comments/dms I've received in the last few hours is insane."Lastly, I 'm not a cheater or a thief."