(Shanghai) Sixteen months after deciding to leave China because of the Peng Shuai affair, the WTA Women’s Tour has decided to return to a country that has quickly become essential for its funding.
The WTA did not obtain all the guarantees on the fate of Peng Shuai who found himself at the heart of a state affair and a global crisis after accusing a senior communist leader of his country of having imposed on him a sexual relationship.
But the leaders of the women’s professional circuit have, to hear them, had no other choice but to record the return of the WTA-stamped tournaments from September.
“We concluded that we would never fully achieve our goals and that ultimately it is our players and our tournaments who will pay the high price for their sacrifice,” the body said in a statement released Thursday.
In the Chinese version of this press release, much shorter than the English version, no mention is made of Peng Shuai, former world No.1 in doubles, who disappeared a few days in November 2021 after posting on the Chinese social network Weibo a long message in which she accused the former vice prime minister Zhang Gaoli, 40 years her senior, of having sexually assaulted her before making her his mistress.
“Huge disappointment”
Since then, she has reappeared in public several times, notably during the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022. At each of her appearances, Peng Shuai was accompanied by regime officials. The WTA claims to have obtained “assurances” from relatives of the player that she “lived in safety with her family in Beijing”.
PHOTO FABRIZIO BENSCH, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Peng Shuai attended a freestyle skiing event at the Beijing Olympics in February 2022.
The WTA’s decision was criticized by human rights associations: “It is a huge disappointment for all those who defend human rights in China,” Human Rights Watch said.
Before continuing: “It is not surprising, given the sums of money that are at stake and the balance sheet of other global companies in China”.
Sticking to sports alone, after two years of China being wiped off the world calendar due to COVID-19 and travel restrictions, the country has once again become a destination for the men’s tennis circuit this year. ATP (4 tournaments, including the Shanghai Masters 1000 in October) and for athletics with a stop on the Diamond League world circuit.
10 tournaments in 2019
For the WTA, China has been its main source of funding since 2015 following the success of Li Na, the first (and only) Chinese woman to have won a Grand Slam singles title (Roland-Garros 2011 and Australian Open 2014 ).
In 2019, the last season with normal progress before COVID-19, no less than 10 tournaments were organized in China by the WTA, including the end-of-year Women’s Masters which, with 14 million dollars, had been better endowed financially. than their male counterparts.
By comparison, the prize pool for the end-of-year Women’s Masters which take place in 2021 in Guadalajara (Mexico) and in 2022 in Fort Worth (United States) had dropped to five million dollars.
The Chinese market is the most dynamic in the world, with no less than 20 million players according to figures from the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
“There are five Chinese women among the world’s top 60 […] with one or two who can aim for a victory in a Grand Slam tournament,” notes China-based sports analyst Mark Dreyer. “China could very well quickly find itself on the front line of women’s tennis.”
Coming out of a court in Shanghai, a player named Sue welcomes the return of the WTA circuit to her country: “There have never been so many people playing tennis, especially among women, everyone is impatient to see professional tennis again, ”she says.