Before the Covid, the Women's Tennis Association organized 10 tournaments each year in China (out of more than 60), including its end-of-season Masters, the most lucrative, in Shenzhen (south).

Tournaments with a total of $ 30 million (26.4 million euros).

The organization made its voice heard after the disappearance of Peng Shuai, a former world No. 1 in duplicate, who accused a former senior Chinese Communist Party official Zhang Gaoli in early November of having notably forced her to submit a report. sexual.

The WTA has called for a "transparent and fair" investigation into the charges.

Its CEO, Steve Simon, also threatened Thursday, on CNN, to withdraw its competitions from the country.

"We are fully prepared to withdraw (from China) our activities and face all the complications that arise," said the boss of women's tennis.

"Because it's (these accusations) more important than business," Simon told US TV.

Mr. Simon further questioned the authenticity of an email attributed by Chinese media to the player, in which she intended to reassure her fate and withdrew her accusations against Mr. Zhang.

"I do not believe at all that this is the truth," said Simon, calling the message "staged".

Reprisals

This strong stance risks angering China, several experts told AFP, in view of the reprisals carried out by the country against other sportsmen who have been critical of the regime.

Chinese tech giant Tencent's sports platform no longer broadcasts Boston Celtics' NBA matches after one of its basketball players, Enes Kanter, called President Xi Jinping a "brutal dictator" and condemned China's policy in Tibet .

Women's Tennis Association (WTA) CEO Steve Simon addresses reporters at a press conference in Singapore, October 26, 2016. ROSLAN RAHMAN AFP / Archives

The NBA had lost $ 200 million (170.25 million euros), when Daryl Morey, then general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted in 2019 his support for protesters in Hong Kong.

The Premier League was also affected when former Arsenal midfielder Mesut Özil condemned the treatment of Uyghurs, an ethnic Muslim group in northwest China.

In light of these events, the WTA's stance is "very unusual," said Simon Chadwick, sports finance specialist at EMlyon Business School.

"Chinese authorities don't like being told what to do."

According to the American magazine Sports Illustrated, China accounted for a third of the WTA's income before the pandemic, a figure disputed by Steve Simon.

"We get a lot of income from China," he simply told Time magazine.

A calculated risk?

But, in a context marked by the possibility of a diplomatic boycott by the United States of the Winter Olympics scheduled for February in Beijing, the WTA may be taking a calculated risk.

Women's tennis is less dependent on the Chinese market than the NBA, which is very popular in China, according to Mr. Chadwick.

Especially since Beijing has few means of pressure towards the organization: the competitions have already been suspended for two years due to an epidemic.

And women's tournaments do not look set to return to China given the extremely strict health regulations observed in the country.

The WTA "has learned to live without China," according to Mark Dreyer of the China sports insider site, "the consequences of his stance are less important today than they might have been in the past."

Authorities could take a less intrusive approach, such as preventing Chinese netizens from commenting on matches abroad, Chinese tennis blogger Ouyang Wensheng said.

In recent days, figures in world tennis have expressed their concern for Peng Shuai on Twitter, under the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai.

Chinese censorship has removed any trace of the player's accusations on social networks.

The post originally posted on Weibo was removed quickly and AFP could not verify its authenticity.

China's Peng Shuai serving against Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo during their women's singles quarter-final match at the Tianjin Open, in Tianjin (China), October 13, 2017. STR AFP / Archives

Since then, the player has not directly communicated or made a public appearance and Zhang Gaoli has never publicly reacted to the accusations.

Chinese authorities, the National Tennis Federation and the WTA have not responded to AFP's requests.

© 2021 AFP