The women’s tennis tour WTA will return to China in autumn. There had been no tournaments in China since November 2021 due to the Peng Shuai case. Now the WTA is changing its course, as it announced.
In November 2021, Peng Shuai accused a high-ranking Chinese politician of sexual abuse on the social network Weibo. The post was deleted soon after. Peng later denied making the allegations. State censorship had blocked any debate about it on the Chinese internet.
Until the last boycott of all tournaments
The WTA had canceled all tournaments in China because of the fall, including the WTA season finale in Shenzhen with the eight best players of the season. The men’s organization ATP also refrained from events in China, but justified this with the strict corona rules in force there.
The WTA has now admitted that it has not achieved all its goals with its boycott. So there was still no direct meeting between the 37-year-old Peng Shuai and WTA officials. “We have not achieved everything we set out to do, but we have had contact with people who are close to Peng and we have been assured that she lives safely with her family in Beijing,” the WTA statement said .
Now is the right time to return to China. The first tournaments there are scheduled to take place in the fall after the US Open. The WTA final of the eight best players of the year is also to be held in Shenzhen again in autumn.