Steve Simon, Chairman and CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), has announced the suspension of tournaments in China. This decision is related to the case of Peng Shuai, the former first racket of the world in doubles, who on November 2 accused the former Vice Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. After that, the tennis player disappeared for a while, and then appeared in public and held a video session with the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach. However, the leadership of the women’s tennis tour is still not sure that Peng Shuai is not being pressured and is demanding an open investigation from the Chinese authorities.
The case of sexual assault against Peng Shuai, two-time Grand Slam winner and ex-first racket of the world in doubles, which Kommersant has already talked about, has been further developed. Ten days after the athlete, who accused former Vice Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Zhang Gaoli, after a long break, appeared in public after a long hiatus and even held a video session with IOC President Thomas Bach, Chair and CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Steve Simon announced on the suspension of women’s tournaments in China.
Paying tribute to the “strength and courage of the tennis player”, who, according to her, Mr. Simon stressed in his statement that in the current situation his organization does not consider it possible to hold tournaments in China and gave detailed reasons for his decision.
“Since Peng Shuai’s post was removed from the Internet and discussion of this serious issue in China was censored, Chinese officials have been given the opportunity to prove that she is free, able to express her thoughts without pressure or intimidation, and to investigate her claims about sexual assault in a complete, fair and transparent manner. Unfortunately, the Chinese leadership did not resolve this very serious issue in a way that would be credible. We know where Peng Shuai is, but I have serious doubts that she is free, safe, uncensored, coercive, and intimidated, ”said Steve Simon. At the same time, the functionary calls for a full and transparent investigation of allegations of sexual violence made by Peng Shuai against a high-ranking official.
The current situation is unacceptable for the WTA for moral reasons. “If powerful people can suppress women’s voices and expose sexual harassment allegations under the carpet, then the core principle on which the WTA was founded – equality for women, is suffering. I cannot allow this to happen, ”emphasized Mr. Simon.
According to him, the decision to immediately suspend all WTA tournaments in China, including Hong Kong, was made with the full support of the WTA Board of Directors. “I don’t understand how you can ask our athletes to compete where Peng Shuai is unable to communicate freely and where, apparently, she is under pressure to refute her allegations of sexual violence. Given the current state of affairs, I am deeply concerned about the risks that all of our players and staff could face if we were to host events in China in 2022, ”Simon said in a statement. According to him, “the leaders of China did not leave the WTA with a choice.” However, the association still hopes that its requests will be heard, and “the Chinese authorities will take steps to legally resolve this issue.”
Despite the fact that earlier Steve Simon has already claimed that his organization is at a crossroads in deciding whether to host tournaments in China, such a tough decision by the WTA is a surprise.
After all, it, in fact, contradicts the position of the IOC leadership, which, after a video session between Peng Shuai and Thomas Bach, apparently considers this topic to be exhausted. “The IOC is the only organization in the world that has been able to do this (contact Peng Shuai – “B”). I think this is a very good start and everyone should be sure that she is okay, ”IOC member Richard Pound said on Monday.
At the same time, it should be borne in mind that if for the IOC on the agenda is the holding of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, which is to be held in February, then the WTA bosses, entering the women’s clinch with the Chinese authorities, risk less risk. The fact is that China, unlike Europe, North America and Australia, in the context of a pandemic, has refused to host tennis tournaments for two years in a row. And at the moment there are no prerequisites for the situation to change in the next season.
In this regard, it will be interesting to observe how two other leading tennis organizations behave – the International Tennis Federation (ITF), whose President David Haggertti was elected a member of the IOC in January 2020, and the Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP), the organizer of the men’s tennis professional tour. … Considering that after the outbreak of the pandemic, the most fundamental decisions in tennis were made with a high degree of consolidation, as well as the solidarity of the players (one of the first athletes who paid attention to the disappearance of Pen Shuai was an elite pair specialist Frenchman Nicolas Mayu, and later, almost all leading players including Novak Djokovic), it can be assumed that the ATP will follow the lead of the WTA. In the meantime, in hot pursuit, several well-known tennis players announced their support for the decision of the WTA leadership, including the two-time Wimbledon champion Czech Petra Kvitova.
As a reminder, in 2019, during the last full season before the coronavirus pandemic, China hosted nine out of 54 WTA Tour tournaments with a total of more than $ 30.5 million in prize money (including the final competition in Shenzhen with a record prize pool $ 14 million). In turn, the ATP held four tournaments there with a total prize pool of about $ 14.2 million.
.