Coco Gauff condemns racist abuse after China Open incident

Coco Gauff says she was targeted with racist abuse online after an incident during her China Open victory over Sun Xinran. Serving to stay in the first set at 4-5, Gauff saw Sun believe she had won the point. But Gauff had already raised her hand to stop play because a light in the panels around the side of the court was flickering.

Gauff described the situation as “unfortunate”. She also called Sun Xinran “an incredible talent and player”, adding that she apologised to her at the end of the match and that Sun understood.

The American then responded to a racist reply to one of her posts. “You can dislike me or disagree about what happened without being racist,” she wrote. Gauff said the number of racist comments and direct messages she had received in a few hours was “insane”. She also made her position clear: “I’m not a cheater or a thief.”

On court, Gauff won the next three points to make it 5-5, then dropped only one more game in the match. Her online account put the incident at the heart of the victory while calling out the racist abuse that followed it.