American star Coco Gauff bid farewell to the women's singles competition at the China Open Tennis Championship, after losing to Belgian Elise Mertens, today, Wednesday, in the fourth round of the competition currently being held in the capital, Beijing.
Gauff lost to Mertens, whom she had beaten in all of their previous five matches, after receiving what she described as a “huge and crazy” amount of racist comments on social media, following a controversial point in the previous round of the competition.
Mertens, ranked 19th in the world, defeated Gauff, ranked fourth, 6-3, 6-3, to qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition.
In a match that took place the day before yesterday, Monday, against Chinese player Sun Xinran, Gauff stopped the exchange of balls after the electronic billboards surrounding the court began flashing during a decisive point late in the first set of the match.
Sun appeared to be on its way to settling the point when Gauff stopped playing, and the chair referee then ordered the point to be replayed.
Gough, a black-skinned player, said in her response, on her account on the “X” platform: “Hello everyone, you can hate me or disagree with me about what happened without resorting to racism. The amount of racist comments and private messages I have received, in the last few hours, is overwhelming and insane. Finally, I am neither a cheat nor a thief.
During her match against Mertens, Gauff lost her serve 4 times.
With this victory, Mertens reached the quarter-finals for the first time in the 1,000-point tournaments, which is the category that immediately follows the four major “Grand Slam” competitions, in 5 years.
Mertens spoke about Gauff after the match, saying: “She is an amazing player, of course, and I knew it would be a very difficult match, but I had strong motivation. Tomorrow is the birthday of my coach and friend, so I dedicate this victory to him and all the work we do together.”
Mertens was able to improve her record against players ranked in the top ten this year, to 3 victories, compared to 3 defeats, as she previously defeated Italian Yasmine Paolini in the Italian Open, and the current top seed, Kazakh Elena Rybakina, in the third round of the English Open, Wimbledon, where she also reached the quarter-finals at the time.
Mertens set up a match in the quarter-finals of the tournament with Polish Iga Szwiłtek, the six-time Grand Slam champion, who defeated rising American Ivan Jovic (18 years old) earlier today, in two clean sets, in the fourth round of the competition.
Australian Alex de Minaur, ranked ninth in the world, said that he will go to Shanghai to undergo medical examinations, after the injury he suffered in the connective muscle that forced him to withdraw from the final of the China Open tennis championship in Beijing, yesterday, Tuesday.
The 27-year-old player was giving a strong performance against Serbian Novak Djokovic in a close final, before he felt muscle pain that prompted him to withdraw while trailing 7-6 and 1-0 in the second set, giving his rival his seventh title in the Chinese capital.
De Minaur told reporters: “I was feeling in excellent condition, then I felt something in the final stages of the first set, and it started to get gradually worse.”
He added: “I feel pain in the connective muscle, but I do not know the nature of the injury yet. “I will undergo further tests and x-rays, and I intend to go to Shanghai to have them done.”
De Minaur knows well the bitterness of injuries, as in 2024 he was forced to withdraw from the quarter-final match at Wimbledon against Djokovic due to a groin injury. The injury also prevented him from competing in the singles at the Paris Olympics, before he returned to action in the US Open seven weeks later.
The Australian was scheduled to participate in the Shanghai Masters Championship, which begins today, Wednesday, after reaching the quarter-finals last year.
If the results of the tests are reassuring, he will still have strong hope of grabbing one of the qualifying seats in the final tournament of the men's tennis season, especially after one of the available positions became vacant following Jannik Sinner's announcement that his season is over and that he will not compete in any other tournaments this year.
Despite the disappointing end in Beijing, De Minaur seemed satisfied with the level he presented during the tournament, after he continued his strong performances and reached the final match.
He said: “Everything was positive, except for the end, of course.”
He added: “I performed very well, and played some of my best points in the tournament. “I felt very comfortable and confident on the field.”
England international star Harry Kane revealed that he is ready to give up his individual achievements without hesitation. In order to win a title with his country, after he equaled the record for the number of appearances with the Three Lions team.
Kane celebrated equaling English goalkeeping legend Peter Shilton's record as the most representative player for the England men's national team, by scoring two goals in his 125th international match, which ended with England's 3-0 victory over its guest, the Czech national team, on Tuesday evening, in the fourth round of Group 3 of the group stage in the first level of the "European Nations League" championship for football.
A cross pass sent by Kane caused Vladimir Coufal, the Czech national team player, to score an own goal, before Kane increased his record as the best scorer in the history of the English national team by reaching 91 goals, thus continuing his brilliance and achieving exceptional achievements in his busy career with the football club.
Despite all that, Kane seemed ready to give up all of that to end the long wait and join the list of legends and the generation of star Alf Ramsey, who won the only World Cup title for England in 1966, in the record of football immortality, especially after he led the team to reach the European Nations Cup final twice in a row and win the bronze medal in the last World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada this summer.
“Yes, absolutely,” Keane said in response to a question about collective success. Without a doubt. “I think I made that clear from the beginning of my career with the national team. Winning a title with England would be the greatest honor in my career and the career of any of us.” Kane added in his statements, which were reported by the British News Agency (PA Media): “It has been a very long time since the last time we won a title, and I believe that our closeness to achieving this in the recent period has made winning the title a loftier goal and has increased our desire to taste the taste of victory. So; “I would certainly trade all of these individual achievements for winning a championship with the national team.”
Kane will hold the record as the player who has played the most matches with the England national team, surpassing Shilton in the match scheduled for next month against Croatia, a confrontation in which he may also play as the first English player to win the “Golden Ball” award since Michael Owen in 2001.
The German Bayern Munich star, who scored 73 goals for his club and country last season, said: “I feel very comfortable having my name on this list, as I see this as a natural result of many good things.” Kane stressed: “I am proud of the records I achieve, and I am also proud to be nominated for awards such as the Golden Ball. Without a doubt.”
He continued: “I believe that any athlete or football player wants to reach the best possible version of himself, and this is what I am currently doing. All these records and individual achievements also reflect not only what you see and what I do on the field, but also what I do off the field.” “It takes a lot of dedication and time, and that's the most satisfying aspect when you start reaping some of those rewards,” Ken revealed.
The veteran English star does not intend to stop anytime soon; “Maybe after 10 years or so,” he says. We will see where the limits of my capabilities are.” The same applies to scoring goals, as the England national team captain seeks to reach the barrier of 100 international goals, and perhaps move forward to compete with the record held by seasoned star Cristiano Ronaldo as the player who scored the most goals with national teams, with 146 goals with the Portuguese national team. Kane talked about reaching 100 goals, saying: “I try not to think about it too much. "It's like a cricketer who is close to scoring 100 runs. The more you think about reaching that number, the more you may not always succeed."
When asked about Ronaldo’s goal tally, he said with a smile: “Once again; Maybe we're talking about long-term goals. “We will see how far we can go.” "I'm in excellent physical condition," Kane explained. I have spoken before about players who continued to shine until their late thirties and are still at the highest levels, even in their forties now.” He stressed: “I deal with the matter season after season. As long as I feel I can help the team and provide added value to it, I will continue on the field. The moment I feel that I am no longer able to help the team, I will stop immediately, as this is my nature.”
Kane concluded his statements by saying: “We must first see if we can reach 100, and then we will decide the next step.”
