Gauff reports online racial abuse after China Open incident

Men’s Rugby League / 5 October 2026 England announce 23-man squad for Rugby League World Cup 5 October 2026 Formula One / 5 October 2026 F1 urged to ‘have a hard look at themselves’ after Bahrain Grand Prix chaos 5 October 2026 Men’s Tennis / 5 October 2026 Medvedev disqualified in Beijing semi after hitting spectator with ball 5 October 2026 Women’s Tennis / 5 October 2026 Kartal comeback ends in third round at China Open 5 October 2026 COCO GAUFF has said she has been racially abused on social media following an incident in her win over Sun Xinran at the China Open on Monday.

The world number four won 7-5 6-1 against the 16-year-old from China to progress to the last 16 in Beijing.

Gauff was serving to stay in the first set at 4-5 when Sun thought she had hit a winner, but the American had already raised her hand to stop the point as a light in the side panels around the court was flickering.

Gauff took the next three points to hold for 5-5, and then dropped just one more game in the match.

The 22-year-old tried to explain the situation on X, saying: “It was an unfortunate situation but it is out of my control.

“Xinran is incredible talent and player, I apologised for the situation at the end of the match and she completely understood.”

Gauff then responded to a racist reply to her post by saying: “Hey everyone, you can dislike me or disagree about what happened without being racist.

“The amount of racist comments/dms I’ve received in the last few hours is insane. Lastly, I’m not a cheater or a thief.”