Coco Gauff targeted by racist abuse after controversial China Open incident

The two-time Grand Slam winner's third-round match against 16-year-old Xinran Sun was marred by a contentious moment late in the first set as a faulty LED light on the side of the court went off in the middle of a point.

The American was serving at 4-5 when the Chinese youngster thought she had hit a cross-court winner, but a flickering light distracted Gauff and she held up her hand to halt play with the signal coming before her opponent got the ball.

Following a video replay, the chair umpire ruled that the point had to be replayed.

Gauff held serve and her teenage opponent, who won the US Open girls' singles title this year, was visibly emotional during the changeover and Sun was broken in the next game before the third seed took the set 7-5 and eventually the match.

The world No. 4 was criticised on social media, with some reprobates resorting to outright racism.

Gauff replied to a post, stating: "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."

Tennis great Boris Becker sent his support to the 22-year-old with a special message on X as he wrote: "Coco! You are a proud black woman and we love you! Don't care or look at any of the comments from the ignorant, stupid people.

"You're special and one of a kind! Keep walking straight with your head held up high! Love from the Becker family!"

Despite the online vitriol, the Chinese fans inside the stadium didn't have too many complaints about the incidents as after a short commotion, they accepted the decision with Gauff explaining during the post-match press conference: "That one point where I had to do the VR, I got a boo for half a second.

"I think they thought I was complaining about the crowd at first. Once they realised it was about the lights, then I think they were okay."

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