Gauff reveals racist abuse after Beijing win over Sun Xinran

Coco Gauff says she received racist abuse online after reaching the last 16 of the China Open in Beijing.

The American beat 16-year-old Chinese player Sun Xinran 7-5 6-1 to move through, according to BBC Sport. She then used social media to describe the messages that followed.

The dispute centres on the first set. Gauff was serving at 4-5 down when she halted play because of a flickering light in the side panels surrounding the court. At that score, losing her service game, the game in which she serves, would have handed Sun the set.

Gauff later wrote on X that stopping the point was "an unfortunate situation" but "out of my control". She said Sun understood what had happened and accepted her apology.

That stop proved important. Gauff held serve under pressure. She then won the next two games to take the set 7-5, before running away with the second set 6-1.

For fans, this means the match turned on nerve. A player serving to stay in a set cannot afford a loose game. Gauff survived hers, then gave the teenager very little afterwards.

Afterwards, the focus shifted away from tennis. Replying to a message containing racist language, Gauff wrote: "You can dislike me or disagree about what happened without being racist".

In a further post, she wrote: "The amount of racist comments/direct messages I've received in the last few hours is insane". She added: "I'm not a cheater or a thief."

What makes this stand out is how quickly a single on-court call became an off-court pile-on. Gauff said she understood disagreement over the stoppage. Her point was that disagreement did not justify racism.

Tennis has seen this pattern before. A July report said female players were subjected to more than 12,000 abusive posts and messages on social media in 2025, according to BBC Sport.