{"id":161746,"date":"2021-11-17T19:00:54","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T20:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=161746"},"modified":"2021-11-18T06:00:18","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T06:00:18","slug":"worrying-update-over-missing-chinese-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=161746","title":{"rendered":"Worrying update over missing Chinese star"},"content":{"rendered":"

The whereabouts of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai took another twist on Thursday morning, with a statement claiming to be from her sent to the sport's governing body<\/a>.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/CGTNEurope\/status\/1461024482383048714<\/a><\/p>\n

"Hello everyone this is Peng Shuai," the statement read.<\/p>\n

"Regarding the recent news released on the official website of the WTA, the content has not been confirmed or verified by myself and it was released without my consent."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Latest snub in shafted batting star's wild career<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Tim Tszyu's ultimatum for dad Kostya<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Peng caused shockwaves in China, and the sporting world, earlier this month when shewrote on social media<\/a> that Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier and member of the ruling Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, had forced her to have sex despite repeated refusals following a game of tennis in 2018.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/JessLakei\/status\/1461027576542027777<\/a><\/p>\n

Today's email, that was allegedly written by Peng, backtracked on those claims.<\/p>\n

"The news in that release, including the allegation of sexual assault, is not true. I'm not missing, nor am I unsafe. I've just been resting at home and everything is fine. Thank you again for caring about me," it read.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Cummins reveals how he would make the captaincy work<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>English cricket commentator apologises for racist texts<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

In response, WTA boss Steve Simon said the email "only raises my concerns as to her safety and whereabouts."<\/p>\n

"I have a hard time believing that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received," he said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenRothenberg\/status\/1461060318210187279<\/a><\/p>\n

The tennis world, including Novak Djokovic<\/a>, Billie Jean King, and Naomi Osaka<\/a>, have come together to call for Peng's safety.<\/p>\n

"The WTA and the rest of the world need independent and verifiable proof that she is safe," Simon said.<\/p>\n

"I have repeatedly tried to reach her via numerous forms of communications, to no avail.<\/p>\n

"Peng Shuai must be allowed to speak freely, without coercion or intimidation from any source. Her allegation of sexual assault must be respect, investigated with full transparency and without censorship."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The whereabouts of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai took another twist on Thursday morning, with a statement claiming to be from her sent to the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161746"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161748,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161746\/revisions\/161748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}