UN Human Rights Office Condemns Racist Abuse Targeted at Coco Gauff Following China Open Match

Following targeted racist harassment directed at American tennis star Coco Gauff, the United Nations human rights office issued a formal statement calling for decisive action against racial and sexist harassment across professional sports. According to reporting by AllHipHop, the UN statement highlighted the widespread abuse Black women face in athletics and urged players, coaches, governing bodies, and fans to actively confront targeted hate. The United Nations human rights office, led by UN High Commissioner Volker Türk, explicitly referenced the online hostility directed at Gauff following her October 5 match in Beijing.

In its public statement, the human rights body declared that there is no place in sport for racial or sexist slurs and abuse, emphasizing that sports bodies must stand up for individuals facing such attacks while fans push back against racial hostility. The online controversy originated during Gauff's match against Sun Xinran at the China Open. During the match, Gauff halted play due to a distracting flickering board just as Sun was preparing to hit a shot.

The match umpire reviewed the situation and ordered the point to be replayed. Gauff won the replayed point, secured her service game to tie the set at 5-5, and went on to win the match 7-5, 6-1. However, the ruling sparked an influx of abusive messages directed at Gauff online. Gauff addressed the hostile reaction on social media, emphasizing that fans can disagree with on-court situations without resorting to racial slurs.

According to AllHipHop, the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) strongly condemned the harassment and contacted the two-time Grand Slam champion directly to offer support. The emotional and physical toll of the incident impacted Gauff's performance in the subsequent round, where she lost 6-3, 6-3 to Elise Mertens on October 7. Citing severe fatigue from the preceding days, Gauff subsequently withdrew from the Wuhan Open, an event scheduled for October 12 through October 18 where she was the defending champion.

The incident comes amidst ongoing industry efforts by tennis governing bodies to address social media abuse. A July report published by the WTA and World Tennis detailed their joint monitoring initiative covering the 2025 season. The report disclosed that automated AI systems and human analysts reviewed over 1.2 million posts and comments across five social media platforms in 57 languages. The monitoring service identified more than 12,000 posts as abusive, with 3,726 flagged as severe abuse.

The investigation led to the removal of 66 percent of verified serious abusive content, and law enforcement authorities examined 35 individual accounts connected to 12 people. Furthermore, the report revealed that 42 percent of all verified abuse and 59 percent of severe abuse were directly linked to disgruntled sports gamblers, with a small cluster of repeat offenders responsible for nearly half of the detected harassment. Off the tennis court, Gauff recently made a cultural appearance in rapper Gunna's music video for the track pop it.

Directed by Spike Jordan, the video features Gauff on court alongside Gunna and artists affiliated with his SB THE LABEL imprint.