Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Coco Gauff lost to a player she had beaten in all five of their previous match-ups after receiving what she described as an “insane” amount of racist comments on social media following a controversy in the preceding round.
The 19th-ranked Elise Mertens beat the fourth-ranked Gauff 6-3 6-3 to reach the China Open quarter-finals on Wednesday.
In Monday’s match against home player Sun Xinran, Gauff stopped a rally after electronic advertising boards lining the court flickered during a point late in the first set.
Sun appeared about to win the point when Gauff stopped playing. The chair umpire then ordered a replay of the point, which Gauff won.
“Hey everyone, you can dislike me or disagree about what happened without being racist,” Gauff, who is Black, said in a reply on X.
“The amount of racist comments/dms I’ve received in the last few hours is insane. Lastly, I’m not a cheater or a thief.”
Against Mertens, Gauff dropped her serve four times.
Mertens reached her first quarter-final at a WTA 1000 event – the level just below grand slams – in five years.
“She’s an incredible player, of course. I knew it was going to be a very tough match,” Mertens said.
Mertens improved to 3-3 against top-10 opponents this year. She also beat defending champion Jasmine Paolini at the Italian Open and current No.1 Elena Rybakina in the third round of Wimbledon, where she reached the quarters.
Earlier, Iga Swiatek broke Iva Jovic’s serve twice in the last four games to beat the 18-year-old American 6-1, 6-3.
Swiatek, a six-time grand slam champion who has struggled at times this year, will next play Mertens.
