Overview
- Coco Gauff stopped play during her China Open match by raising her hand to complain about flickering LED advertising boards, and the chair umpire ordered the point replayed, a decision that stood as she won that match on Oct. 5.
- After the match Gauff reported receiving an “insane” volume of racist comments and direct messages and said the barrage left her drained during her next match against Elise Mertens.
- Organizers later announced Gauff withdrew from the Wuhan Open to rest and recover, citing fatigue after a long season and the emotional toll of the online abuse.
- The UN Human Rights office publicly condemned the racist messages on Oct. 10 and called on sports bodies, players and platforms to push back against racial and sexist slurs, a move backed by the WTA and former players including Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.
- The episode has focused attention on two wider problems in tennis: repeated on-court hindrances from changing LED panels that players and officials have raised, and growing online abuse that WTA and World Tennis data show topped 12,000 abusive posts in 2025, a pattern linked in part to disgruntled gamblers and to limits in platform moderation.