Coco Gauff Gets UN Support After Racist Lunatics Abuse Her Over China Open Match

Coco Gauff gained support from the United Nations’ human rights office after racist abuse over her China Open match prompted a call for action across sports.

The office condemned the attacks on October 10. It said Black women in sports face targeted racist abuse and urged players, coaches and sports bodies to support those under attack.

“There is no place in sport for racial or sexist slurs and abuse,” the United Nations’ human rights office said. “Players, coaches and sports bodies need to stand up for those facing such attacks and fans need to push back against those who sully sport with racism and sexism.”

The statement also called on fans to challenge racism and sexism. The office, headed by UN High Commissioner Volker Türk, singled out the messages aimed at Gauff.

The dispute began during her October 5 win over Sun Xinran in Beijing. Gauff stopped play over a flickering ad board as Sun prepared to hit a winner. The umpire reviewed the play and ordered a replay. Gauff won that point, held for 5-5 and took the match 7-5, 6-1.

“You can dislike me or disagree about what happened without being racist,” Gauff wrote afterward.

The WTA also condemned the abuse and said it had contacted Gauff to offer support.

By October 7, the two-time Grand Slam winner said the past few days had drained her. Elise Mertens beat her 6-3, 6-3 in the next round. Gauff later withdrew from the Wuhan Open, citing fatigue. She had won that event last year.

The UN’s response follows a broader effort within tennis to track threats and identify people behind abusive accounts.

In a July report covering the 2025 season, the WTA and World Tennis said their monitoring service reviewed more than 1.2 million posts and comments. It classified more than 12,000 as abusive, including 3,726 involving serious abuse.

The service uses AI tools alongside human analysts. It covers more than 10,000 players and officials across five social platforms, with analysts reviewing content in 57 languages.

The report said 66% of serious abusive content was taken down. It also said law enforcement reviewed 35 accounts linked to 12 people.

The report also linked 42% of the abuse it verified to angry gamblers. That share rose to 59% for serious abuse. A small group of repeat offenders accounted for nearly half of all the abuse the service found.

Gauff’s withdrawal means she won’t defend her title at Wuhan, which runs October 12 through October 18.

The news follows Gauff’s appearance in Gunna’s “pop it” video this week.

The Spike Jordan-directed visual puts the tennis star on the court with the rapper and features artists from his new imprint, SB THE LABEL.