Coco Gauff says she suffered racial abuse on social media following an incident in her win over 16-year-old Sun Xinran at the China Open.

The 22-year-old had been serving at 4-5 in the first set when her Chinese opponent thought she had hit a winner.

However, Gauff raised her hand to halt play because of a flickering light in the side panels surrounding the court.

Players are allowed to request video reviews of specific judgement points if they believe there has been a hindrance - such as whether a ball has bounced twice, or a distraction has interfered with play.

The point was replayed and won by Gauff, before the American went on to hold for 5-5 and subsequently close out the first set.

She dropped just one game in the remainder of the contest as she claimed a 7-5 6-1 victory to reach the last 16 in Beijing.

The world number four gave a lengthy explanation of why she stopped the point in a post on X and said it was "an unfortunate situation" but "out of my control", adding that Sun had understood and accepted her apology.

Gauff then responded to a reply to her original post which included racist language.

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

"The amount of racist comments/direct messages I've received in the last few hours is insane. Lastly, I'm not a cheater or a thief."

Gauff is far from the first player in the women's game to suffer social media abuse.

A report in July said female players were subjected to more than 12,000 abusive posts and messages on social media in 2025.

The WTA and World Tennis said "collective action" was required to make "significant progress" in tackling abuse. (BBC)