Martin Samuel: WTA and its players’ shameful China backflip puts cash ahead of Peng Shuai

It was November 2, 2021, that Peng, a former world No 1 in doubles and No 14 in singles, went public with the accusation that she had been sexually assaulted by China’s former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli. The post, on Weibo, was taken down after 30 minutes, and Peng vanished.

Apart from some heavily stage-managed appearances during the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February 2022, she has not been seen since. The WTA, and its chief executive, Steve Simon, was widely lauded for suspending participation in all tournaments based in China in December 2021. It said the tour would only return on two conditions: that it could speak to Peng freely and that a “full, fair and transparent” investigation of her claims would be conducted. Neither has been met. “A different approach is needed,” Simon said. “Hopefully, by returning, more progress can be made.”

And if it isn’t? Who cares? Not the WTA. It has made its stance perfectly clear with this capitulation. It needs China’s money. Take it away and it has no means of adequately keeping women’s tennis in the style to which it is accustomed. So there never was a point of principle. It never did boycott China. The time the WTA spent out of the country coincided with a savage Covid lockdown when touring would have been impossible. This is the first season the WTA could have gone back to China, and it did.

As craven as the attitude of the WTA is that of Peng’s fellow players. “The ATP and the ITF were already going back, and women’s tennis is following,” the world No 5 Carolina Garcia said, as if that made it right. “In the past we have had some huge tournaments over there. I’m looking forward to it.” Anne Keothavong, the captain of Great Britain’s women’s team, added: “Tennis is a business. The WTA need to generate commercial revenue and the players need a circuit to compete.”

In other words, money is at stake. Yet it is not as if there would be no money in women’s tennis without China, just less money. It is not as if there would be no circuit either, just one that doesn’t involve a part of the world that holds female tennis players captive and, allegedly, sexually assaults them. Women’s tennis should have gone nowhere near China again until Peng is satisfactorily freed.

“After 16 months of suspended tennis competition in China and sustained efforts at achieving our original requests, the situation has shown no sign of changing,” read a WTA statement. “We have concluded we will never fully secure those goals, and it will be our players and tournaments who ultimately will be paying an extraordinary price for their sacrifices.”

Rubbish. Peng is paying the extraordinary price, just as Peng made the sacrifice. The WTA and, by the sounds of it, the players, were on her side right up until the moment of financial impact. There would have been a time when the WTA and Simon would have feared wider action, even an embarrassing boycott; sadly they appear to know the priorities of the modern membership only too well.

Originally published as Martin Samuel: WTA and its players’ shameful China backflip puts cash ahead of Peng Shuai