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 ‌Chinese 16-year-old 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."

Gauff beat Sun 7-5 6-1 to reach the fourth round, but was targeted online after stopping play ‌during a key point in the first set, raising her hand to complain about a flickering advertising board just as Sun was about to put away a winner. After a video review, the umpire ordered the point to be replayed. Gauff won the replayed point and held serve for 5-5 before going on to seal victory over Sun.

Gauff later said she had received a barrage of abusive messages on ⁠social media ​after the match. The WTA condemned the abuse.

"There ⁠is no place for racism, discrimination, or abuse in tennis," the WTA told Reuters in a statement. "We are appalled by the racial abuse directed at Coco Gauff and are in contact with her to ⁠offer our full support.

"As we do for all WTA players experiencing online abuse, our Threat Matrix team is monitoring the abusive messages, working with the athlete's team to report them to ​the relevant platforms and seeking action on the content and the accounts responsible." The Threat Matrix service was launched in 2024 and uses AI and ⁠open-source data to help protect athletes from online abuse and harassment.

The defeat against Mertens 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.

Gauff 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."