Coco Gauff Fights Back After Racist Abuse Over Replayed Point at China Open
Coco Gauff shared a post on X hitting back at racist abuse she received online after her China Open win over Sun Xinran in Beijing.
"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," Gauff wrote on her X account.
The messages came after a disputed moment during her 7-5, 6-1 victory. Gauff advanced to the fourth round of the WTA 1000 event, but the win was overshadowed by the online backlash.
The incident in question unfolded in the first set, with Gauff down 5-4 and locked in a lengthy rally with Sun. Gauff appeared to stop playing and appealed to the chair umpire, holding up her hand to signal she wanted to halt the point. Sun continued playing and hit a winner.
The umpire sided with Gauff, who said a flickering advertising board had hindered her view. It was a critical moment—had the winner counted, Sun would have been two points from taking the first set.
Instead, Gauff addressed the controversy directly in a follow-up post on Threads, insisting she was "following the rules." Her response came after the chair umpire conducted a video review that confirmed the flickering board and determined the point should be replayed.
THE DISPUTED POINT
The video review confirmed what Gauff had signaled in real time: the flickering from the advertising boards did hinder her, and the point was replayed.
That decision flipped the momentum of the set. Sun had been two points from taking the first set; instead, the replayed point gave Gauff a chance to reset, and she went on to close out the set 7-5.
For Sun, the sequence was a gut punch delivered by an invisible malfunction. For Gauff, it was a matter of procedure—she saw the flicker, raised her hand, and let the umpire sort it out.
The controversy, though, did not end with the review. What happened next on social media turned a rules dispute into something far uglier.
GAUFF'S EXPLANATION
Gauff explained the incident in a post on Threads, saying she was “following the rules.”
“I saw it flicker in the beginning of the point but was not sure if that is what i actually saw ... when it flickered again I raised my hands before she hit her shot because this is when I was sure I saw the light flicker and it wasn’t my mind doing tricks lol,” she wrote.
She added: “It was an unfortunate situation but it is out of my control, the think pieces and calling me an unfair is ridiculous when those are the rules. I did not make them, I think it’s weird i’m getting hate for following the rules.”
Gauff also made clear the dispute had not soured her relationship with her opponent. “Xinran is incredible talent and player, I apologized for the situation at the end of the match and she completely understood,” she wrote.
THE RULE AND THE REVIEW
The rulebook was on Gauff’s side. Per The Athletic’s James Hansen, the WTA rulebook states that “a let should be called if a player is hindered by an event outside of her control (e.g., ball rolling onto the court, paper blowing onto the court).”
The chair umpire conducted a video review and confirmed the flickering advertising board hindered Gauff. The point was replayed as a result of the review.
That replay came at a critical moment. Had Sun’s winner counted, she would have been two points from taking the first set. Instead, Gauff went on to win the match in two sets, 7-5, 6-1, advancing to the fourth round of the WTA 1000 event in Beijing.
WHAT TO WATCH NEXT
Gauff advanced to the fourth round of the WTA 1000 event in Beijing with the 7-5, 6-1 win, but the source does not specify her next opponent or match date. That information has not been confirmed.
Her response to the racist abuse and the disputed replay may continue to draw attention as the tournament progresses. The source mentions no further statements from Sun Xinran or the WTA, so any additional reaction from either side has not been confirmed.
For now, the focus stays on Gauff’s run in Beijing—and on how the conversation around that replayed point follows her into the next round.
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