Coco Gauff said she had been left drained by the racist abuse she experienced during the China Open after suffering a shock defeat by Elise Mertens as Iga Swiatek reached the quarter-finals. Mertens snapped her losing streak against Gauff to record her first win in six matches 6-3 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals in Beijing on Wednesday. Gauff's defeat came after she received what she described as an "insane" amount of racist comments on social media following a controversial point in the preceding round.
When trailing 6-3 4-1 to Mertens, Gauff told her box: "I have no energy. I'm trying, I have no energy. I can't see the ball, I feel like I'm going to pass out.
"I'm going to just try to finish the match." In her clash against 16-year-old home player Sun Xinran on Tuesday, 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. The chair umpire then ordered the point to be replayed. Gauff took the next three points to hold for 5-5, and then dropped just one more game in the match.
Gauff, who has an excellent record in China, was asked by reporters in Beijing whether she had been affected by the abuse, and she said: "It has been kind of draining, I'm not going to lie. I just turn off my phone and move on. There's nothing you can do.
"I think today I was just a bit flat. I think I wasn't moving well. There were a lot of things I didn't do well." The 22-year-old tried to explain the situation, saying on social media site X: "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." Gauff, the 2024 Beijing champion, delivered a flat performance, racking up 34 unforced errors in total as Mertens held on in impressive style, winning 10 of her last 11 service points and sealing victory with her second ace.
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