Saturday 15th January 2022
Tennis star worried about colleague
Dangerous silence in the case of Peng Shuai
Novak Djokovic is currently making the headlines in tennis. Things have gone quiet again about his colleague Peng Shuai. Ex-world number one Garbine Muguruza thinks it’s too quiet. It’s been four weeks since Peng gave a sign of life. Neither China nor the IOC seem to be trying to clarify the matter.
The full clarification of the “Peng Shuai case” is very questionable for the former tennis world number one Garbine Muguruza from Spain. “Month after month it goes by but it’s kind of not moving forward. For a moment it really looked like we might find out what really happened, but it’s going to be hard to find out the whole truth, and for her, free to speak,” said the 28-year-old top five player ahead of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Last November, Peng reported in a short-lived post on the Chinese news service Weibo about her sexual abuse by China’s former ex-Vice Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli. Her subsequent absence from the public led to protests and demands from numerous prominent colleagues and institutions such as the WTA for independently verifiable safety guarantees for the athlete.
Peng then appeared several times, especially in Chinese state media and in a video call with President Thomas Bach of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). However, despite her protestations to the contrary, there are still doubts about the integrity of the 36-year-old, especially since her last statement on December 20 was almost four weeks ago.
As a consequence of the lack of clarification of Peng’s allegations by the Chinese authorities, the WTA had previously canceled all tournaments in China and its special administrative region of Hong Kong until further notice, despite the associated losses of millions.
Muguruza paid the WTA great respect for this approach. “That made the WTA great. The WTA showed a lot of courage and character,” the former French Open and Wimbledon winner praised her umbrella organization. The world number three can only hope for clarity about what is happening around Peng: “Will we ever find out anything about it? I think China is too complicated a country to deal with.”
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