The WTA has announced the return of Chinese tournaments to the tournament, 16 months after the decision to ban them. This measure followed the disappearance of Peng Shuai, a tennis player of Chinese origin still missing today. In total, six tournaments will be able to resume service.
The WTA, the professional women’s tennis circuit, absent from China since the Peng Shuai affair, will return to this country in September, the organization announced in a press release on Thursday. “The WTA is lifting the suspension on hosting tournaments in China and tournaments will resume in China this September,” the WTA said, while acknowledging that “the situation” had “shown no signs of changing” at the time. regard to the Peng Shuai case.
In January, the WTA had asked the Chinese authorities to be able to speak “in private” with the player, after the latter had accused a senior Chinese leader in 2021 of “forced” sexual intercourse during a relationship that lasted several years. The WTA had decided in 2021 to no longer organize tournaments in China in response to the disappearance for several weeks of this Chinese player, winner of Wimbledon and Roland-Garros in doubles.
16 months after suspension
“When, in 2021, Peng Shuai showed courage with his testimony, the WTA took a stand by suspending its tournaments in China due to its concern for his safety and for the safety of its players and staff,” said reminded the WTA in its press release. After 16 months, “we have concluded that we will not be able to fully achieve our objectives and that it will be our players and our tournaments who will pay the price”, continues the text.
Until 2019, the WTA circuit stopped in several Chinese cities from September, with no less than six tournaments in the country that year, in addition to the end-of-year Masters organized in Shenzhen.