A light flickered for a few seconds at the China Open in Beijing, and within hours Coco Gauff was dealing with a wave of racist abuse in her replies and direct messages. The 22-year-old, ranked world number four, had just beaten a 16-year-old on her opponent's home turf.
Her response on X, followed by a fourth-round exit on Wednesday, has put a long-running problem back in the spotlight: how Black women in tennis are treated online when a decision goes against the crowd.
Why Coco Gauff Replayed the Controversial Point
Late in the first set, Gauff was serving at 4-5 against Sun Xinran, the home favourite and recent US Open junior champion, with one game standing between her and losing the set. The electronic boards around the court flickered.
Sun thought she had hit a winner, but Gauff had already raised her hand to stop play. The umpire ordered a video review, and then a replay, and some of the crowd booed.
Job done ✅@CocoGauff defeats Sun 7-5, 6-1 to book her place in the Round of 16 in Beijing!#ChinaOpen pic.twitter.com/9v2XIWbkLS
— wta (@WTA) October 5, 2026
The hindrance rule in tennis allows a point to be replayed when something outside a player's control interferes. Gauff won the replayed point, held serve and went on to win comfortably. She apologised to Sun at the end, and says Sun understood completely.
How a Court Glitch Led To Racist Abuse Aimed at Gauff
Critics targeted Gauff for requesting the review, and the criticism soon took a different turn. Replying to a post containing a racial slur, she wrote that people could dislike her or disagree about what happened without being racist.
She described the volume of racist comments and messages she had received within a few hours as 'insane' and added: 'I'm not a cheater or a thief.' She also said it felt strange to be criticised for following the rules.
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.
— Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) October 5, 2026
— Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) October 5, 2026
Gauff then lost to Elise Mertens in straight sets in the fourth round. Asked whether the abuse had affected her, she described it as 'kind of draining,' saying she switches off her phone and moves on. She also acknowledged that she had felt flat and did not play well.
Elite Black Women Facing Racism in Tennis
Gauff is not the first Black woman in tennis to face this. Serena and Venus Williams stayed away from Indian Wells for more than a decade after the racist abuse they received there in 2001. In 2018, a newspaper cartoon of Serena Williams during the US Open final drew widespread criticism as racist and sexist.
Researchers who studied online abuse of Serena Williams around Wimbledon 2015 found racist, sexist and homophobic comments appearing together. Writer Tobi Oredein has used the term misogynoir for discrimination that combines racism and sexism and affects only Black women, and has linked it to the stereotype of the angry Black woman. Gauff's case is the latest to play out on social media, where abuse can arrive within hours of a match.
What Is WTA and ITF Doing About This
The WTA and ITF have run a monitoring service called Threat Matrix since January 2024, covering around 8,300 players. Its first season-wide report found 458 players received more than 8,000 abusive posts in 2024, and 40% of the abuse came from angry gamblers.
A total of 97 accounts were behind nearly a quarter of it, and 15 were referred to law enforcement. Those figures cover abuse in general rather than racist abuse specifically.
The two bodies also announced real-time moderation for their official channels, available to individual players on request. Jessica Pegula, a member of the WTA Players' Council, has said gambling companies and social media platforms need to tackle the problem at its source.
Neither the WTA nor the ITF had publicly commented on the abuse aimed at Gauff at the time of writing, which leaves players deciding for themselves how to respond. Gauff's response is the latest in a long line of individual answers from Black women in tennis.
