Coco Gauff says she received an ‘insane’ amount of racist messages after China Open win
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The two-time Grand Slam champion said criticism over a replayed point crossed into racism after her third-round victory in Beijing.
Coco Gauff flagged a flickering advertising board. What came back at her had nothing to do with tennis.
NBC News reported that the two-time Grand Slam champion received what she described as an “insane” volume of racist messages following her third-round win at the China Open on Monday, a 7-5, 6-1 victory over 16-year-old local player Sun Xinran.
The flashpoint came late in the first set. Gauff raised her hand to stop play, citing the electronic boards lining the court, just as Sun appeared poised to put away a winner. After a video review, the chair umpire ordered the point replayed. Gauff won it, held for 5-5, and took control of the match from there.
Her response arrived on X early Tuesday, posted in reply to a message containing a racial slur. “You can dislike me or disagree about what happened without being racist,” she wrote, before adding, “Lastly, I’m not a cheater or a thief.”
She also clarified the procedure. Players are permitted to request video reviews on select judgment calls, including claims that a distraction interfered with play. Gauff was operating inside the rules, not circumventing them.
The detail that complicates the outrage is what she did afterward. Gauff said she approached Sun at the end of the match to apologize for the situation, and that the teenager understood completely. She called Sun an incredible talent and said sharing the court in front of her home crowd was an honor.
That gesture went largely unacknowledged by those filling her inbox, which is the familiar shape of these episodes. A procedural decision becomes a question of character, and the character attack arrives racialized.
The WTA has attempted to address the problem with an AI-powered system monitoring thousands of players and officials across social platforms, though tools of that kind have struggled to keep pace with the volume.
Gauff has since advanced further in Beijing, where she is the defending champion.