The American player Coco Gauff said that following a victory over Sun Xinran at the China Open, she experienced racist abuse on social media. Gauff detailed in a post on X why she stopped the point, describing the situation as 'unfortunate' but 'outside her control'.
The incident occurred when Gauff was serving at 4-5 in the first set. Her opponent, Sun Xinran, believed she had hit a winner, but Gauff raised her hand to stop play due to a flickering light in the side panels around the court. Gauff then won the next three points to make it 5-5, before winning the set. In the rest of the match, she lost only one game. The match ended with a 7-5 6-1 victory, propelling her into the last 16 in Beijing.
In a post on X, Gaaff added that Sun had understood and accepted her apology. However, after she replied to a comment on her original post which contained racist language, a wave of abuse followed. 'You can dislike me or disagree with what happened without being racist,' Gauff wrote. 'The amount of racist comments/direct messages I have received in the last few hours is crazy,' she added, highlighting: 'In the end, I am not a cheat or a thief.'
Gauff is currently fourth in the world rankings. Her experience comes in the context of a wider problem facing female players. A report in July showed that female players were exposed to more than 12,000 abusive posts and messages on social media in 2025.
The WTA and World Tennis stated that 'collective action' is needed to achieve 'significant progress' in addressing abuse. The case of Gauff highlights once again the seriousness of the problem faced by athletes on digital platforms.
