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 the organization of tournaments in China and tournaments will resume in China this September,” said the WTA, while acknowledging that “the situation” had “shown no signs of changing” at the time. regard to the Peng Shuai case.
In January, the WTA asked the Chinese authorities to be able to speak “in private” with the player, after she accused a senior Chinese leader in 2021 of “forced” sex during a relationship that lasted several years. 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.