Coco Gauff and Belinda Bencic clash over China Open ‘mind games’

Coco Gauff said that her “pettiness” helped her to beat Belinda Bencic at the China Open in Beijing, after the Swiss player accused the American’s team of “mind games.”

Bencic clashed with Gauff’s team in the sixth game of the second set, as she prepared to serve down break point but leading 6-4, 2-3. On the previous point, Bencic had hit a poor drop shot that Gauff returned for a winner, drawing celebrations from her box. Bencic told Gauff’s box to “shut up,” saying that they should not have been cheering “before I serve” and comparing the situation to “under-12s” tennis.

Gauff said, “I treat your team with respect, you treat my team with respect,” before adding that her team were not cheering before Bencic’s serve.

Bencic ultimately held serve for 3-3, before breaking Gauff, who hit three double faults. “Immediately after that, next game I was frustrated, threw three doubles,” Gauff said in her news conference.

“But after that I was just like, ‘OK, I don’t want to lose anymore after this point.’

“I was able to just buckle down. I think it was almost good for me in a way. I think I can play sometimes a little bit better when I’m annoyed, more so not with myself but with something else,” Gauff said.

It was Bencic who unraveled, complaining to the chair umpire about Gauff’s box when they sat down with the Swiss up 4-3 in the second set and two games from victory. Gauff interjected, to which Bencic replied, “No one’s talking to you, she’s talking to me, OK? Your team is chanting! I’m too old for these mind games!”

Gauff broke in the next game and went on to win the second set in a tiebreak, before taking the third to win the match 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2. The pair shook hands cordially at the end of the match and Gauff said there was no lingering ill feeling. “She’s entitled to how she felt and I’m entitled to how I respond,” she said.

“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.”

As Gauff observed during the initial confrontation, the close-to-empty stadium in Beijing — which is hosting a men’s and women’s tournament in parallel — and lack of crowd noise magnified the noise from both players’ boxes and also the intensity of any confrontation. Players jaw with opponents’ teams on a regular basis in tennis — it just goes more unnoticed because of all the other usual noise in a stadium.

Gauff now moves on to play Eva Lys of Germany, who reached her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal by beating McCartney Kessler of the U.S. 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Gauff, who qualified for the season-ending WTA Tour Finals by beating Bencic, is the defending champion in Beijing.

(Photo: Lintao Zhang / Getty Images)

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