Tennis-Gauff falls to Mertens at China Open after 'draining' few days

Coco Gauff crashed out of the ​China Open in the last 16 on ​Wednesday, suffering a 6-3 6-3 ‌defeat ​by Belgium's Elise Mertens in what the American third seed described as a "draining" few days. Gauff revealed after her victory over local ‌teenager Sun Xinran on Monday that she had received an "insane" amount of racial abuse on social media following a match in which a replayed point sparked an online backlash.

Asked what the previous ‌36 hours had been like, the 22-year-old told a news conference: "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." The defeat capped a difficult few days for the two-times Grand Slam champion, who had beaten the ⁠30-year-old Mertens ​in all five ⁠of their previous meetings.

The 13th seed reached her first Beijing quarter-final in her seventh appearance at the WTA 1000 ⁠tournament and will next face six-times Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek. "My coach/boyfriend (Christopher Heyman), it's his birthday tomorrow," ​Mertens said in her on-court interview. "So for me, this win is dedicated to him."

Gauff's ⁠challenge unravelled amid a barrage of errors, with the 2024 Beijing champion committing 34 unforced errors, including eight double ⁠faults, ​during the 78-minute defeat. The American struggled to find her rhythm throughout the contest and, trailing 4-1 in the second set, told her team courtside that she had "no energy" and ⁠felt as though she might pass out.

"I think I just didn't play well," Gauff said. "I ⁠think I wasn't moving ⁠well. There were a lot of things I didn't do well. I thought Elise played well on the big points, made me play ‌a big ‌ball, yeah."