Coco Gauff and Belinda Bencic Caught in Heated Exchange Over Crowd Behavior at China Open

Earlier this season, Coco Gauff endured a tough 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 loss to Belinda Bencic in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open 2024 at Indian Wells. The sting of the defeat may have lingered, but she answered back weeks later on the clay of the Mutua Madrid Open 2024. She defeated the Swiss 6-4, 6-4 in a largely uneventful match to level their head-to-head for the year. Now Diamond Court pitted them against each other for the China Open 2025. Gauff, the defending champion, won again, but not without a heated exchange with her opponent.

After Bencic snatched the first set in the R16 against Gauff, the second set saw unexpected drama. Just when the score reached 2-3, the Swiss pro clashed with Gauff’s team as she prepared to serve down break point. On the previous rally, Bencic had thrown in a poor drop shot that Gauff punished with a winner, prompting loud celebrations from the American’s box. Irritated, Bencic told them to “shut up,” insisting they should not be cheering “before I serve” and even likened the situation to “under-12s” tennis.

To this, Gauff fired back, “I treat your team with respect, you treat my team with respect,” clarifying that her camp had not interrupted her opponent’s serve. But Bencic’s frustration carried over as she pressed the point, “No one’s talking to you. She’s talking to me, OK! Your team is chanting! I’m too old for these mind games, OK!”

She didn’t let the matter drop, adding that cheering was fine once the point ended but not when she was stepping up to serve. The tension spilled over into the next changeover, with Bencic venting to the chair umpire as Gauff interjected again.

Following this verbal sparring, the match turned personal in intensity. After Bencic had edged the first set, Gauff steadied herself despite a shaky stretch of three double faults in the very next game. “Immediately after that, next game I was frustrated, threw three doubles,” she admitted later. “But after that I was just like, ‘OK, I don’t want to lose anymore after this point.’ I think I can sometimes play better when I’m annoyed, more so not with myself but with something else.”

Her focus showed. Gauff clawed her way back, breaking Bencic and eventually forcing a tiebreak. There, she held her nerve to push the match into a decider.

By the end of the marathon 2-hour-29-minute battle, it was Gauff who ultimately emerged with the upper hand over the 28-year-old. After finding her rhythm in the second set, she surged through the third, sealing a 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 win. The handshake at the net was respectful, with Gauff later saying there were no hard feelings. “She’s entitled to how she felt, and I’m entitled to how I respond,” the American reflected. “I obviously have a lot of respect for Belinda. She’s a great player, coming back and playing great tennis as a mom. Yeah, I obviously wish today didn’t happen, but it is what it is.”