Coco Gauff responds after receiving racist insults over a replayed point: "I’m not a cheater"'
The American, who beat Sun Xinran, addressed the hateful messages after she stopped a point and it had to be replayed due to a problem with the advertising boards.
"Coco Gauff, who defeated local 16-year-old player Sun Xinran this Monday 7-5, 6-1, responded to the racist criticism she received on social media after a point had to be replayed when she herself stopped it because of problems with the advertising lights.
The American said that "you may not like or agree with what happened without being racist. The number of racist comments and direct messages I have received in the last few hours is incredible. Lastly, I am not a cheater or a thief".
You may not like or agree with what happened without being racist
Afterwards, the tennis player explained what had happened when, in the first set, she was serving and the match stood at 5-4, with the score at 15-15. At the end of a long rally, Gauff raised her hand to stop play, just before Sun reached a volley and sent the ball wide to hit a winning shot that would have left her two points away from winning the first set.
Just before that, while Sun was getting ready to hit the ball, the advertising boards located along the sides of the court changed their ads and that was what led Gauff, as she admitted, to stop play. She had seen the boards flicker at the start of the point, but "she wasn't sure if that was really what she had seen," she wrote.
The chair umpire conducted a video review and determined that the flickering constituted a hindrance, so the point was replayed.
