TENNIS – Coco Gauff crashed out of the China Open in the last 16 yesterday, suffering a 6-3 6-3 defeat by Belgium’s Elise Mertens in what the American third seed described as a “draining” few days.
Gauff revealed after her victory over Chinese 16-year-old Sun Xinran on Monday that she had received an “insane” amount of racial abuse on social media following a match in which a replayed point sparked an online backlash.
Asked what the previous 36 hours had been like, the 22-year-old told a news conference: “It has been kind of draining, I’m not going to lie. I just turn off my phone and move on. There’s nothing you can do.”
Gauff beat Sun 7-5 6-1 to reach the fourth round, but was targeted online after stopping play during a key point in the first set, raising her hand to complain about a flickering advertising board just as Sun was about to put away a winner.
After a video review, the umpire ordered the point to be replayed.
Gauff won the replayed point and held serve for 5-5 before going on to seal victory over Sun.
Gauff later said she had received a barrage of abusive messages on social media after the match.
The WTA condemned the abuse.
“There is no place for racism, discrimination, or abuse in tennis,” the WTA said in a statement.
“We are appalled by the racial abuse directed at Coco Gauff and are in contact with her to offer our full support.”
“As we do for all WTA players experiencing online abuse, our Threat Matrix team is monitoring the abusive messages, working with the athlete’s team to report them to the relevant platforms and seeking action on the content and the accounts responsible,” the statement added.
The Threat Matrix service was launched in 2024 and uses AI and open-source data to help protect athletes from online abuse and harassment.
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