WTA Tour looking to host the Finals in the UK next year as they continue to snub China following the Peng Shuai controversy
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Peng Shuai and Steve Simon
Steve Simon-led WTA Tour has held its ground in not stepping into China for yet another season. The Tour decided to cancel all events in China after former Doubles World No. 1 Peng Shuai accused China’s former vice premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault on 21st November 2021.
While the Pandemic forced the cancellation of all events in China during the 2021 season, a regular season was expected in the 2022 season. Shuai’s accusations and the mysterious disappearance and reappearance had the tennis world shocked and despite WTA’s many pleas, they did not get into a dialogue with the player which led to their decision to cancel events in the region.
China had a 10-year deal with the WTA to hold the year-end championships in Shenzhen starting in 2019. The 2020 edition was canceled due to the Pandemic and the 2021 edition was shifted to Guadalajara due to travel restrictions in China. Shortly after the WTA Finals, Shuai’s incident happened resulting in WTA’s decision to snub the country.
With a disappointing turnout of the audience in this year’s Finals in Fort Worth, Texas, the WTA is again on the lookout for a new location and is strongly considering the UK after the successful completion of the 2022 BJK Cup Finals in Glasgow in the week after the Finals were played out.
“The WTA’s priority for the WTA Finals is providing a world-class sporting event for players, partners and fans. We will make our decision in the next several months about the location of the WTA Finals for next year.
“If we are in a position to seek a new location, we welcome any discussions from interested parties in the UK or other countries that share the passion to create an industry-leading event to showcase women’s tennis,” said a WTA spokesperson speaking with Express UK.
LTA dents the plans as they show no interest in hosting the WTA Tour Finals
While the WTA was looking at the UK with hopes, it might take more than that to actually get the tournament in the region. The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), the biggest tennis governing body of the UK, currently has no plans to bid for the year-end championships.
“There are no current plans to bid to host the WTA finals, however, we remain open to opportunities to bring other major events to this country – as we have done this year with the Davis Cup Group Stage Finals and Billie Jean King Cup Finals,” informed an LTA spokesperson to Express UK.
The WTA Tour released their calendar for the 2023 season on 15th November 2022 and it has the scheduled only till the 2023 US Open scheduled in September as always. The events in Asia, particularly in China are held after the US Open and WTA has kept the calendar free as of now.
While they look for a new host city for the Finals, they would also hope that Shuai is able to contact them and that normalcy can be restored. None can deny China will bring in more sponsorship money for the event and the Tour and it could be one of the reasons why WTA has not cemented its schedule for the final few months of next year.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)