Peng's safety before business, says Allaster

TORONTO • Stacey Allaster, the former chief executive officer of the WTA Tour who negotiated millions of dollars of rights deals with China, told Reuters on Monday the tennis world has put Peng Shuai's health and safety ahead of business.

As the WTA and ATP Tour seasons draw to a close this week with Finals in Mexico and Italy, the spotlight has focused on China, with the women's governing body for the sport on Sunday calling on the Chinese government to probe sexual assault allegations made by Peng against a former vice-premier.

The 35-year-old, a former top-ranked doubles player and one of China's biggest sporting stars, alleged on her now-deleted Weibo social media account on Nov 2 that Zhang Gaoli, who used to be a member of the Politburo Standing Committee - China's top decision-making body - coerced her into sex and they later had an on-off consensual relationship.

That post was quickly deleted and concerns among the global tennis community have grown as Peng, the first Chinese player to top the world rankings when she was the No. 1 doubles player in 2014, has not been seen since.

"Our sport is focusing on the health and safety of Peng Shuai, business is secondary," Allaster, who is the chief executive of professional tennis for the United States Tennis Association (USTA).

"It is tough and it also is tough for this very courageous young woman that has broken her silence and come forward with these allegations."

Allaster would know better than most about the challenges of engaging with Chinese officials, having served as the WTA chairman and chief from 2009-15, a period that saw women's tennis make a massive push into the China market.

The country has been the focus of the circuit's expansion over the last decade and hosted nine tournaments in 2019 with a total of US$30.4 million (S$41.2 million) prize money on offer.

The season-ending WTA Finals had a prize purse of US$14 million in 2019 when it was played in Shenzhen for the first time.

The ongoing tournament was moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic but it is set to move back to Shenzhen next year until 2030.

However, Allaster admitted the event's future in China, as well as other high-profile events like the Wuhan and Beijing Open, could be put at risk with the WTA's decision to highlight the Peng issue.

"How this and all that unfolds it is very difficult to say at this point but decisions will have to be made," she warned.

"Steve Simon's (current WTA chairman and chief) statement made it clear that they need to fully support Peng Shuai. This is a very important moment for the WTA's business and history."

REUTERS