2023-09-15 05:25:08
Alizé Cornet announced that she would not participate in the next tournaments in China, an important part of the WTA calendar, explaining on social networks that she was “faithful to (her) convictions” in reference to the affair of the disappearance of the ex- Chinese player Peng Shuai. Its season will therefore resume in October.
“True to my convictions and attentive to my health, I have decided that I will not play in China this year,” the player wrote in a message published Wednesday on her Instagram account. The Frenchwoman, currently 99th in the world, alludes to the Peng Shuai affair, a former Chinese player who mysteriously disappeared after accusing a manager of sexual assault.
Cornet
From September 18 to 23, the WTA will organize its first tournament in the metropolis of Canton (south), after having banned the country from its calendar for almost four years due to this affair.
On April 13, the WTA announced the resumption of tournaments in China in September, while recognizing that “the situation” had “shown no signs of change” in the Peng Shuai affair. After sixteen months, “we concluded that we would not fully achieve our objectives and that it would be our players and our tournaments who would pay the price”, justified the women’s tennis body.
Its president Steve Simon announced on December 1, 2021 the suspension of tournaments in China, already paused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
On November 2, 2021, Chinese player Peng Shuai published a long message on the Chinese social network Weibo in which she spoke of a sincere but upset sentimental relationship with former Vice-Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli, married and 40 years her senior.
The message from the former world No.1 in doubles was quickly deleted by the platform, because nothing usually filters through on the intimate lives of senior Chinese leaders, a taboo subject.
After the message was published, Peng Shuai did not hear from him for more than two weeks.
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