He asked for clarification on the story of tennis player Peng Shuai, otherwise the WTA - the association that manages the women's professional tennis circuit worldwide - threatens to leave China.

"We are fully prepared to withdraw our businesses and face all the complications that will follow," Steve Simon, WTA number one, told CNN. "Because rape allegations are more important than business."

The 35-year-old at the center of the international event, former number one in the world ranking for doubles thanks to victories in Wimbledon and Paris and who is not known where she currently is, accused on social media in early November the former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of having forced her had a sexual relationship three years ago, before making her his mistress.

Simon spoke not only of the request for an independent investigation but also teased that the WTA is planning ten events in China for 2022 worth tens of millions of dollars, but that they are willing to withdraw them. "We are at a crossroads in our relationship with China and our business there," he noted, adding that the WTA must demand justice and cannot compromise: "Women must be respected and uncensored."

Simon finally reiterated his doubts about the authenticity of the message in which the champion defines her accusations against Zhang as "false". "I don't think that's the truth at all," he added, speaking of that email as a "staging. If she was forced to write it, if someone wrote it for her, we don't know, but until we talk to her about it. person we will not be reassured ".

(Unioneonline / ss)

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