Coco Gauff faces racist abuse after China Open point stop
Coco Gauff reported receiving racial abuse online following a match incident at the China Open in Beijing on Monday, 5 October 2026.
Match conclusion and explanation
The American star defeated Sun Xinran with a score of 7-5 6-1 to reach the last 16. Gauff stopped play during the first set because a flickering light in the side panels was visible. She explained that the situation was unfortunate but out of her control.
Response to online comments
Gauff posted on X stating she apologised for the incident and noted Sun understood the explanation. The player then addressed racist replies by saying people can disagree without using racial slurs. She described the volume of racist direct messages as insane in her latest statement.
Context on social media abuse
A separate report noted that female tennis players faced over 12,000 abusive posts and messages in 2025. The WTA and World Tennis stated that collective action is required to tackle this issue.
All 2 outlets report consistently
No differences in figures, names or dates across these reports.
- Sky Sports
- BBC News
Reported by
2 independent outlets. Headlines as published. Links open the original report.