The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) will resume operating tournaments in China in 2023 after having suspended events there in late 2021 because of concerns about Chinese player Peng Shuai. The return, announced on Thursday, is also a retreat.

When Peng, one of China’s biggest tennis stars, accused a former top Chinese government official of sexual assault in a social media post in November 2021, the WTA and Steve Simon, its chairman and chief executive officer, took a strong stance.

The WTA called for a “full and transparent” inquiry into Peng’s allegations, which were quickly censored online in China, and requested an opportunity to speak with her directly.

The following month, the WTA suspended its Chinese tournaments and announced that the tour would not return until its demands were met. Sixteen months later, faced with a stalemate, the WTA has effectively blinked.

“We’re convinced that the requests that we put forth are not going to be met,” Simon said in an interview this week. “And, with that, to continue with the same strategy doesn’t seem to make sense, and we need a different approach.

“Our members believe it’s time to resume our mission in China, where we believe we can continue to make a positive difference... while at the same time making sure that Peng is not forgotten and that we can, by returning, make some progress.”

The WTA’s suspension of Chinese tournaments was more symbolic than substantive. China cancelled nearly all international sports events in 2021 and 2022 in response to the pandemic.

Even without the WTA suspension, there almost certainly would have been no tour events in the country in 2022.

But in a landscape in which global sports leaders have often kowtowed to China and its economic clout, the WTA’s move in 2021 still sent a strong message and made the tour an outlier.

The men’s tennis tour, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), did not follow suit and never suspended any of its Chinese events.

Through the years, China has become a more important market for the WTA than for the ATP. The women’s tour held nine events in China in 2019, accounting for about one-third of the WTA’s annual revenue.

The most significant of those tournaments was the season-ending WTA Finals in Shenzhen, which awarded a record US$14 million (S$18.5 million) in prize money in 2019, the first year of a lucrative 10-year deal.

The tour, which has long relied heavily on revenue from the WTA Finals, took big financial hits when the event was cancelled in 2020 and then moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2021 and to Fort Worth, Texas, in 2022.

In Guadalajara and Fort Worth, the WTA had to pay the significantly lower prize purse of US$5 million itself.

Simon said the tour will resume play in China in September. Although the schedule is not yet complete, he said he expected to hold eight tournaments there in 2023, including the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai and the Finals, which Simon indicated would be staged in Shenzhen until 2031 to fulfil the original 10-year commitment.

World No. 5 Caroline Garcia told the BBC that the WTA’s move was “very important”, adding: “In the past, we have had some huge tournaments over there and I think it is an important swing for us in our calendar and I’m looking forward to it.”

The return to China will further bolster the WTA’s finances, but Simon rejected the suggestion that the decision was all about the bottom line.

Simon said: “It was based upon what was in the best interest of the organisation, and we felt this was in that best interest.

“Will it be good for our balance sheet and those types of things? Yes it will, but that wasn’t the basis for the decision.”

Simon said it was also important to women’s sports that women’s tennis have a presence in China, where the game has grown since the success of the women’s star Li Na, the first Grand Slam singles champion from China.

Peng, who disappeared from public view for several weeks after posting her initial allegations in 2021, has since reappeared, including a meeting with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach during the Beijing Winter Games in February 2022.

She has also given interviews to international media, claiming that she had been misunderstood and had not actually made sexual assault allegations.

Although Simon said the WTA has been unable to establish direct contact with Peng, he said the tour has received assurances from “people close to Peng in the area that she is safe and living with her family in Beijing”. NYTIMES, REUTERS