"What's the real story? That's all we have asked for"- WTA CEO Steve Simon continues to request Peng Shuai's investigation reports, says no assurances have been forthcoming from China

Steve Simon, the CEO of the WTA, recently stated that despite repeated requests, China has not yet provided any assurances about the investigation of Peng Shuai's alleged sexual assault.

Shuai, a tennis player from China, was a force to be reckoned with on the courts. She is a three-time Olympian who has amassed 25 tour titles over the course of her career. Her ground-breaking success aided in raising the profile of women's tennis in China. However, last November, the 35-year-old disappeared.

After publicly accusing a former Chinese Communist official of sexual assault back in November 2021, she disappeared. Shuai said in a post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo that former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli forced her to have sex with him. The post was promptly removed from the internet.

However, she later recanted her claims in a carefully crafted interview with French sports magazine L'Equipe in February 2022, announcing that she was leaving competitive tennis. Following the incident, the WTA suspended all of its tournaments in China and Hong Kong, and Shuai has not been seen in public since.

Given this, Simon stated in an interview with the Associated Press News that he wanted a thorough and open investigation into her allegations as well as a chance for the tour to speak with her, and none of these things have yet occurred.

"We do need to resolve Peng. We’re comfortable that she’s safe, and we know she’s in Beijing, which is great. We want that. But we haven’t received the assurances that we want with respect to the investigation that we requested," Simon said.

"What’s the real story? That’s all we’ve asked for. What’s the story? She obviously had great courage to come forward with what she said. The principles that are involved are right in line with what we stand for as an organization. And what we’ve asked for is an investigation to understand what occurred, what didn’t occur, and then address it appropriately," he added.

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"I never disappeared, everyone could see me; I never said anyone sexually assaulted me" - Peng Shuai

Peng Shuai in action at Wimbledon 2018.

Peng discussed her sexual allegations in an interview with the French magazine L'Equipe. The Chinese thanked everyone who came to her aid but expressed confusion as to why it was necessary in the first place because she had never "disappeared."

"First of all, I would like to thank all the ATP and WTA players, all the athletes and all the personalities in large numbers who cared about me," Peng Shuai said, adding, "But I didn’t think there would be such concern and I would like to know: why such concern? I never disappeared, everyone could see me."

She reminded fans that the assault charges were false. In fact, Peng stated that she withdrew her Weibo post on her own initiative since it was causing a "huge misunderstanding."

"[My post on Weibo] has given rise to a huge misunderstanding from the outside world," Peng Shuai said, adding, "I hope that we no longer distort the meaning of this post. I never said anyone sexually assaulted me."