The WTA is expected to remain inoperational in China for the rest of 2022, after Tour chief Steve Simon announced they have yet to find a resolution regarding its standoff with the Chinese government regarding its support for star Chinese player Peng Shuai.
“We remain dedicated to finding a resolution to this,” Simon told The Tennis Podcast last week.
“We want to find a resolution that Peng can be comfortable with, the Chinese government can be comfortable with, and we can be comfortable with.”
“We are not about walking away from China. We have suspended our operations there right now. We will continue to do that until we get to a resolution.”
In December, the WTA suspended all of its tournaments in China after Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai went missing following her social media post accusing China’s former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of coercing her into sex.
Controversy and conspiracy ensued in the wake of her disappearance, and her post was subsequently removed.
“We will stay resolute,” Simon told British sports presenter and The Tennis Podcast podcast host, Catherine Whitaker.
“We do hope to be back there in 2023 with the resolution that shows progress was made in the space. That’s a victory for the world if we can accomplish that.”
Most recently, Simon has continued to say that all WTA business in China will be suspended “…until [Peng] is independently and verifiable safe to be well and able to speak without coercion.”
In February this year, Peng sat down for an exclusive interview with a French newspaper, where she repeated an earlier claim that she’d never been sexually assaulted, that her life is “nothing special” and denied she had accused anyone of sexual assault.
“I never said anyone sexually assaulted me,” she told L’Equipe in the interview, which was conducted at the Winter Olympics with a representative from China’s Olympic Committee who also acted as Peng’s translator.
Simon said the WTA have “…not had any recent communication with Peng and the world has not seen Peng since the Olympics either.”
“I don’t think you will make change in this world by walking away from issues,” he added.
Last week, WTA released a statement criticising the moves of Wimbledon, The All England Club (AELTC) and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) in Britain for banning Russian and Belarusian players from competing in events in the UK due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The WTA strongly condemns the actions that have been taken by Russia and its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” the statement read.
“A fundamental principal of the WTA is that individual athletes may participate in professional tennis events based on merit and without any form of discrimination.”
“That principle is expressly set forth in our rules and has been agreed to by both AELTC and LTA. Prohibitions against discrimination are also clearly expressed in their own rules and the Grand Slam rules.”
Simon told The Tennis Podcast that the decision was against Grand Slam rules and that the ban violated the regulations concerning athlete entry.
“We don’t have the same jurisdiction over the Grand Slams as we do (over) our own sanctioned events,” he said.
“We have precedents … where these situations may have occurred where fines and tournament sanctions have been imposed.”
“People take the position that sports and politics shouldn’t match and shouldn’t be intertwined, but that’s not the reality.”
“At times sports does cross into politics and here is a situation where politics is crossing into sports. It is real life. The announcement that came out was extremely disappointing, to say the least.
The WTA statement concluded that the organisation would “… continue to apply its rules to reject discrimination and ensure that all athletes are able to compete at our Tour events should they qualify to do so, a position that until today’s announcement has been shared across professional tennis.”
“The WTA will be evaluating its next steps and what actions may be taken regarding these decisions.”