Madrid Open: Coco Gauff fires back at racists

Tennis star Coco Gauff arrived in Madrid not entirely healthy. She was battling a severe stomach virus that forced her off the court to vomit during her match against Sorana Cîrstea on April 26 — and she still won.

That kind of grit usually earns goodwill. Days later, when the physical toll mounted and she fell to Linda Noskova, what followed was not the expected wave of sympathy. Instead, her social media accounts were flooded with racist messages from anonymous users who had lost money betting on her match.

She did not go quiet. Gauff took to TikTok and called it out plainly through on-screen text: the angry gamblers hiding behind anonymous accounts, the racist comments filling her Instagram replies and direct messages. She punctuated the response with lyrics from a Young M.A track — a pointed cultural reference that undercut the trolls far more effectively than any formal statement could.

What happened to Gauff is not an isolated incident. It is a symptom of an industry expanding faster than its accountability structures. According to the American Gaming Association, the sports betting sector generated a record $16.96 billion in revenue in 2025. That growth has been accompanied by a surge in toxic, sometimes criminal, behaviour directed at athletes, referees, and coaches.

The losses driving that rage are staggering. Americans who legally placed wagers in 2025 lost hundreds of billions of dollars — a figure roughly 11 per cent higher than the prior year. That frustration does not stay contained. It spills outward, and athletes — particularly Black women — absorb a disproportionate share of it.

This is not the first time Gauff has converted online hostility into public messaging. After claiming her eighth career title at the China Open in Beijing, defeating Karolina Muchova 6-1, 6-3, she posted a photo with her trophy alongside a sardonic caption mocking critics who had dismissed her previous results. One user on X called her response immature. Gauff replied by reframing the insult entirely — arguing that the positive, creative mindset of a child is precisely the energy that made the win possible.

She has also spoken openly about her habit of spending up to 30 minutes blocking accounts and removing negative comments. Rather than being drained by the process, she has said she sometimes reads critical comments specifically to fuel her own motivation.

The attacks this month extended beyond the tennis court. Gauff appeared in a campaign for Miu Miu, photographed in a natural, unretouched look that the brand intended as a statement on authenticity. Some users responded with targeted comments about her hair, which Gauff wears naturally, consistent with her 4C curl type.

She addressed it directly on TikTok, explaining that slicking her hair back causes damage, and that as a tennis player, her hair is almost always in a bun for practical reasons. She made clear she had no intention of apologising for how her hair looked in the campaign. Then she went further, framing her decision to show up naturally as an act of representation for other young Black girls who share her hair texture.

She acknowledged the toll the criticism took — two days of feeling shaken, she said — and connected it to a longer experience of navigating appearance-based scrutiny as a young Black woman in professional sports. But the vulnerability did not last long as the defining note.

Tennis star Coco Gauff arrived in Madrid not entirely healthy. She was battling a severe stomach virus that forced her off the court to vomit during her match against Sorana Cîrstea on April 26 — and she still won.

That kind of grit usually earns goodwill. Days later, when the physical toll mounted and she fell to Linda Noskova, what followed was not the expected wave of sympathy. Instead, her social media accounts were flooded with racist messages from anonymous users who had lost money betting on her match.

She did not go quiet. Gauff took to TikTok and called it out plainly through on-screen text: the angry gamblers hiding behind anonymous accounts, the racist comments filling her Instagram replies and direct messages. She punctuated the response with lyrics from a Young M.A track — a pointed cultural reference that undercut the trolls far more effectively than any formal statement could.

What happened to Gauff is not an isolated incident. It is a symptom of an industry expanding faster than its accountability structures. According to the American Gaming Association, the sports betting sector generated a record $16.96 billion in revenue in 2025. That growth has been accompanied by a surge in toxic, sometimes criminal, behaviour directed at athletes, referees, and coaches.

The losses driving that rage are staggering. Americans who legally placed wagers in 2025 lost hundreds of billions of dollars — a figure roughly 11 per cent higher than the prior year. That frustration does not stay contained. It spills outward, and athletes — particularly Black women — absorb a disproportionate share of it.

This is not the first time Gauff has converted online hostility into public messaging. After claiming her eighth career title at the China Open in Beijing, defeating Karolina Muchova 6-1, 6-3, she posted a photo with her trophy alongside a sardonic caption mocking critics who had dismissed her previous results. One user on X called her response immature. Gauff replied by reframing the insult entirely — arguing that the positive, creative mindset of a child is precisely the energy that made the win possible.

She has also spoken openly about her habit of spending up to 30 minutes blocking accounts and removing negative comments. Rather than being drained by the process, she has said she sometimes reads critical comments specifically to fuel her own motivation.

The attacks this month extended beyond the tennis court. Gauff appeared in a campaign for Miu Miu, photographed in a natural, unretouched look that the brand intended as a statement on authenticity. Some users responded with targeted comments about her hair, which Gauff wears naturally, consistent with her 4C curl type.

She addressed it directly on TikTok, explaining that slicking her hair back causes damage, and that as a tennis player, her hair is almost always in a bun for practical reasons. She made clear she had no intention of apologising for how her hair looked in the campaign. Then she went further, framing her decision to show up naturally as an act of representation for other young Black girls who share her hair texture.

She acknowledged the toll the criticism took — two days of feeling shaken, she said — and connected it to a longer experience of navigating appearance-based scrutiny as a young Black woman in professional sports. But the vulnerability did not last long as the defining note.v