WTA Tournaments: tennis organisations announces return to China after boycott over Peng Shuai allegations

Following a 16 month boycott, the Women’s Tennis Association has announced that tournaments will return to China this year after accepted that an investigation into the sexual assault allegations made by the former doubles world number one player Peng Shuai will not be carried out by the Chinese government.

In November 2021, Peng said she was “forced” into a sexual relationship with former China vice-premier Zhang Gaoli, after which the WTA suspended its end-of-year events in the country, saying it would not return until there was an investigation and had proof of Peng’s safety.

After making the accusation on social media, Peng then disappeared from the public eye before later denying making the allegation and Zhang has not publicly commented on the allegation. At the time, the WTA called for the Chinese authorities to hold a “full, fair and transparent” investigation before any tournaments could go ahead, but nothing has materialised.

In the past, ten women’s pro tennis tournaments were held in China each year, including the WTA Finals and Chinese Open, generating millions of dollars in revenue for the WTA.

What has been said?

The WTA chief executive, Steve Simon, spoke to BBC Sport saying: “We’ve been in this for 16 months and we are convinced that at this point our request will not be met. To continue with the same strategy doesn’t make sense and a different approach is needed. Hopefully by returning more progress can be made.

Despite promising a hard-line stance with the Chinese government, in which he said there would be no room for compromise, Simon has said he will not be resigning: “No, I would never do that to an organisation. It’s about leading an organisation and listening to its members.

“We have athletes that come from over 80 nations, so there’s plenty of different opinions, but the majority of athletes were very supportive of a return back to the region. We certainly have some that were not, but the majority - the great majority - were in support and are in support of going back. There was strong support across the members, the (player) council and board.

“We’ve achieved some assurances from people that are close to Peng that she’s safe and living with her family in Beijing. We do also have some assurances that there won’t be any issues with our players and staff while they are competing in China. And hopefully we have received some respect for the stance we took.”

Simon has also denied any suggestion that by returning to China, the WTA has removed a crucial pillar of support for Peng. We are hoping by the return more progress will be made. We are very proud of the position we took. We’re not going to let Peng be forgotten at this point in time.”

When will the tournaments take place?

Following the Open Delle Puglie in Italy in September, no other tournaments have been added to the calendar, thus making it likely that the tournaments in China will take place in October, November and December. A schedule is expected to be released in the coming weeks and the WTA Finals are likely to return to Shenzhen.

Who is Peng Shuai?

Peng is a former professional tennis player who reached world number one in the WTA doubles rankings in 2014. She also reached world number 14 in the singles rankings in 2011. Peng won doubles major championships at Wimbledon in 2013 and the French Open in 2014 while her best singles result was her run to the US Open semi-finals in 2014.

In total, Peng achieved 23 WTA titles in doubles as well as two WTA singles titles and represented China at three Summer Olympics. It has been estimated by the WTA that she earned over $9.5 million (£7.6 million) on the court and, now aged 37, her last competitive tournament was in Doha, Qatar in February 2020.