The boss of the WTA, Steve Simon, reiterated, Monday, February 7, his “concerns” regarding Peng Shuai, “in no way attenuated” by his interview at The Team [article payant], and added that he maintained the position of the women’s circuit vis-à-vis China, where all tournaments have been canceled.
“It’s always nice to see Peng Shuai’s reappearances, whether in an interview or at the Olympics. However, his recent interview [diffusé lundi par le quotidien sportif français] granted in person does nothing to alleviate our concerns about his first message of November 2″, Mr. Simon wrote in a press release.
That day, a long message posted on the official Weibo account of the player [l’équivalent de Twitter en Chine] had accused Zhang Gaoli of rape, before and after he held high office at the top of the communist regime. Married and 40 years her senior, Mr. Zhang was from 2013 to 2018 one of the seven most powerful politicians in China.
The message was quickly deleted and the 35-year-old Wimbledon and Roland-Garros doubles winner disappeared from radar screens for three weeks, causing concern in the tennis world.
On Sunday December 19, in a first interview granted to a Chinese media, Peng Shuai had refuted any sexual assault. What she repeated to L’Equipe, in front of two journalists who found her “in good form”.
“Sexual assault? I never said anyone sexually assaulted me”, she insisted. And when asked why the accusatory message was deleted, she simply replied: “because I wanted to”.
“It’s always good to see Peng Shuai, whether in an interview or attending the Olympic Games.
However, her recent in-person interview does not alleviate any of our concerns about her initial post from November 2nd.
We continue to hold firm on our position.”
—wta (@WTA) February 7, 2022
“To reiterate our point, Peng has been bold in publicly disclosing that she was sexually assaulted by a senior Chinese government official. As we would with any of our players around the world, we have requested that ‘a formal investigation into these allegations be carried out by the appropriate authorities, and that the WTA can meet with Peng, in private, to discuss his situation’, recalled Steve Simon.
“We remain firm on our position and our thoughts remain with Peng Shuai”, concluded the boss of the WTA who did not hesitate at the beginning of December to suspend all the tournaments on his calendar in China, including in Hong Kong.