The ITF should cancel all women's Junior and Challenger events in China now.
Richard 12 ouncesFinally, a commish with a set. Just this morning, good old Dick Pound (muahahahaha!) said "the unanimous conclusion is that Peng is fine". Everyone involved looks like they're in a hostage video. Credibility isn't a part of the IOC's vocabulary, so no surprises there.
no tennis players at the winter olympics would be equivalent to a declaration of warGreat, now let the ATP follow suit. And let athletes boycott the Beijing Olympics.
Would love to see Guadalajara rewarded with another couple of YECs after their recent electric crowd.
The WTA just made this is much more stark cut cost/risk analysis for the CCP. They are going to need to revisit some rather complacent assumptions about their 'worst case scenario' here. Its beginning to get hot, and that air conditioner is not working very well.
Major props to WTA. That couldn't have been an easy move.
I'd advise the council members be checking their food extra carefully now, though.
Judging by the crowds at Chinese tournaments, not sure any fans would care or be impacted.Terrible decision. China was great supporter of WTA in the last decade. The Chinese tennis fans will be disappointed.
What a move. WTA is the sportsman of the year.
Judging by the crowds at Chinese tournaments, not sure any fans would care or be impacted.
We finally agree on something! And something actually important to boot. Well said.It was a matter of time. At this point NOT following through on its initial fusillade would've resulted in even more damage to the WTA brand. The lead-up to the Olympics should be interesting to say the least.
As always, and as we saw not too long ago in the stunningly swift victory for the gay marriage advocates, culture dictates politics even though you may get the opposite impression from the scoop-hungry media. Like I've been saying it's no coincidence that it took a women's sports organization to stand up to the CCP machine while the likes of IOC, FIFA and NBA and even the WTA's sister orgs ATP and ITF treaded lightly. Despite its seemingly few tangible gains on the political stage #MeToo has been a galvanizing force around the world, and if Western democracies are having trouble keeping up it's no wonder their autocratic rivals have next to no clue how the worldwide gender dynamics have changed in the last 4-5 years alone. The CCP bureaucrats are only beginning to find out.
This story is a big nothingburger and is purely political against China.
It not definitive at all, Beijing are about to hold Winter Olympics and Dick Pound is under intense pressure from the Chinese with clear conflict of interest.Long-time International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound has said that the "unanimous conclusion" by those on a call with Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai is that she is "fine."
Given that Dick Pound is not a friend of certain countries his statement is almost definitive.
It not definitive at all, Beijing are about to hold Winter Olympics and Dick Pound is under intense pressure from the Chinese with clear conflict of interest.
The WTA are suspending events that are not happening anyway due to covid. And will probably not happen in 2022 due to covid given China's eradication strategy.
So they have in effect lost nothing as yet. There has been no shredding of contracts. And the suspension only has to last as long as the anti-Beijing Olympics push is relevant.
Although China may take legal action against the WTA to terminate their contracts.
China wouldn’t need to be embarrassed if they didn’t actively cover up sexual assault allegations and make dissidents such as Peng Shuai disappear for weeks on end…People are missing the point that suspending tournaments that already were not being held is a pretty lame action. But from an anti-China PR perspective, it's a great move, bc it fires up a lot of people who don't like China/the CCP. No doubt this move was geared towards embarrassing China ahead of the Winter Olympics.