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      Despite the Trend in Sports, Don’t Expect Ashleigh Barty to Un-Retire

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      When the world’s top women’s tennis player won the Australian Open in January, it became her crowning achievement. Her stunning retirement is a loss to tennis.Tennis, with all its aging and ailing superstars, has been bracing for big farewells for years. But players like Roger Federer, Serena and Venus Williams and Andy Murray have defied the timeline and the expectations, pressing on and rejecting retirement through competitiveness, stubbornness, and a love of the game and the platform.Which is why Wednesday came as such a surprise.Ashleigh Barty, by these new-age standards, was just getting started. At 25, she was ranked No. 1 with three Grand Slam singles titles in the bank, including Wimbledon last year and the Australian Open in January. Already an icon at home, she had the beautiful game and winning personality to one day become a global brand as the majors and seasons piled up.But Barty was on her own timeline, and, after long and careful consideration, she is retiring on top, the very top, which might sound neat and tidy but actually requires the self-awareness and the guts to leave quite a few things unfinished.If Barty remains retired, she will never win a U.S. Open singles title, never win the Billie Jean King Cup team event for Australia, never win an Olympic gold medal, never, with her complete set of tennis tools, achieve the calendar-year Grand Slam that her Australian predecessors Rod Laver and Margaret Court won more than 50 years ago.Barty warmed up on court P4 at the start of the fifth day of the 2019 U.S. Open.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesBut there is more to a champion’s life than a checklist, and, as Federer and his enduring peer group would surely confirm, it is only worth making the trek to such low-oxygen destinations if you genuinely enjoy the journey.Barty, a teen prodigy who won the Wimbledon girls title at age 15, has long seemed like someone whose gift took her farther than she wanted to go.“I’m shocked and not shocked,” Rennae Stubbs, an Australian player, coach and ESPN analyst, said of Barty’s retirement. “Ash is not an ego-driven person wanting more. She’s happy and now comfortable and never has to leave her town and family again. And she’s content with her achievements now.”The journeys, it is true, are longer for Australians, and they had been isolated under some of the strictest lockdowns and quarantine rules in the world during the pandemic.Barty spent all of 2020 in Australia, opting to remain home in Brisbane rather than travel abroad to compete when tournaments resumed after a forced hiatus. She left the country for several months in 2021, cementing her No. 1 status by winning four titles, including Wimbledon. But after losing early in the U.S. Open, Barty, emotionally drained, returned to Australia and skipped the rest of the season.That might have been a hint that early retirement was a possibility; that balance and personal well-being were Barty’s priorities, all the more so with her financial future secure. But then came her return to competition in January, when she ended Australia’s 44-year-drought by winning the Australian Open singles title — without dropping a single set. After her forehand passing shot winner against the American Danielle Collins, she howled with delight.Barty supporters cheered as they watched her defeat Alison Riske during the 2020 Australian Open.Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The New York TimesPerhaps, in retrospect, it was a scream of relief. What looked like her latest achievement turned out to be her crowning one. She did not pick up a racket again, even to practice, after winning the title in Melbourne. She pulled out of the prestigious hardcourt events in Indian Wells and Miami, and then retired on Wednesday, delivering the news in a prearranged conversation with her friend and former doubles partner Casey Dellacqua that was released on social media.“I don’t think Ash has ever been part of a current,” said Micky Lawler, the president of the Women’s Tennis Association, who spoke with Barty on Tuesday before her announcement. “This is not a new trend for her. I think she has always been very determined and very clear on where she stood and where tennis stood in her life.”That clarity has been hard-earned. Barty has matured and learned a great deal about herself through therapy and life experience since she stepped away from the tour and its pressures for the first time at age 17, depressed and homesick. Sports comebacks remain all the rage, as Tom Brady continues to make clear. Tennis stars of the past who retired early — see Justine Henin and Bjorn Borg — did eventually return to competition, however briefly. But the feeling in tennis circles is that another Barty comeback is against the odds.“I would guess that this is her final decision,” Lawler said. She added, “There would be a much bigger chance of her coming back if she lived in the States or in Europe. The fact she’s in Australia and loves Australia and loves being home, I think that plays a big role in how she decided this and when she decided this, and that will make a comeback that much harder.”Barty in action against Sofia Kenin in their semifinal singles match at the 2020 Australian Open.Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The New York TimesLawler said that, in their conversation, Barty also made it clear that she did not want to continue placing travel demands on Craig Tyzzer, her veteran Australian coach.Lawler said she expects Barty to request to be removed from the rankings, likely before the end of the Miami Open, which concludes April 3. No. 2 Iga Swiatek of Poland could become No. 1 by winning her opening match in Miami, but if she loses, No. 6 Paula Badosa of Spain could also become No. 1 by winning the title.Though Swiatek, 20, and Badosa, 24, have powerful games and charisma, Barty’s departure leaves a void. Stylistically, her flowing, varied game was a refreshing change from the big-bang approach that has long prevailed. Barty, though she stood only 5-foot-5, had plenty of power and one of the most dominant serves — and forehands — in the game. But her success was also based on changes of pace, spin and tactics. She could hit over her backhand with two hands, or slice it with one hand and tremendous control, depth and bite.Her full package often bamboozled more one-dimensional opponents. Other young players possess similar variety, including Russia’s Daria Kasatkina and Canada’s Bianca Andreescu, who won the 2019 U.S. Open. But Barty was the most consistent and irresistible exemplar of variety. She was 3-0 in Grand Slam singles finals, although it bears remembering that she never faced a player ranked in the top 10 in any of the Grand Slam tournaments she won.Barty celebrated after she won her first Wimbledon title in 2021.Pool photo by Ben QueenboroughThat was no fault of her own, but her early departure will again make it challenging for the WTA to create what it has lacked for most of the last 20 years: the enduring, transcendent rivalries that have been the hallmarks of the men’s game in the age of Novak Djokovic, Federer and Rafael Nadal.Serena Williams, the greatest women’s player of this era, is 40 and has not played since injuring herself in the first round of Wimbledon last year. She may not play again. Naomi Osaka, her heir apparent in terms of global profile and commercial portfolio, has struggled with her mental health and is now ranked 77th. Emma Raducanu, the talented British teen who was a surprise U.S. Open champion last year, is a sponsor magnet but not yet ready to soar to the top.Perhaps Barty will take on other sporting challenges. During her first hiatus from tennis, she showed her potential to be a world-class cricketer, and she is an excellent golfer who is engaged to Garry Kissick, a professional golfer from Australia. Other women’s tennis stars have switched to professional golf, including Althea Gibson, but that move sounds unlikely given the global travel that sport also demands.The WTA clearly knows how to crown champions and do business without Barty. Despite finishing the season at No. 1 the last three years, she has not been a dominant presence there amid her long breaks from the sport. But however well-considered her departure, it is still sad for tennis that she did not want to carry the torch forward.Her character and game would have worn particularly well. More

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      Taylor Fritz Defeats Nadal at Indian Wells, Fulfilling a Prediction

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      The tournament has been a launching pad for young players recently, including Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu, who went on to win the U.S. Open in the same year.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Back in the day, Taylor Fritz and his father Guy would drive north on the highway from San Diego, come over the Santa Rosa Mountains and navigate the switchback turns down to the Coachella Valley, where the world’s best tennis players gather every March in Indian Wells.Fritz, a talented junior, was just another boy patrolling the courts and hunting for fun and autographs, including Rafael Nadal’s, but Fritz’s father told him something extraordinary.“He told me that I was going to win this tournament one day,” Fritz said.On Sunday, Fritz, now 24, did just that: holding off a diminished but still dangerous Nadal, one of the greatest players in tennis’s long history.“This is seriously like a childhood dream come true,” said Fritz, fighting off tears after fighting off Nadal, 6-3, 7-6 (5). “Like a wild dream you never expect to actually happen.”Guy Fritz, who peaked at No. 301 in the ATP rankings in 1979, long believed in his son, who has reached No. 8 with this victory. But it has taken Taylor until now to develop the faith and the forehand to take out a champion like Nadal at such a tournament.It is a Masters 1000 event, a step below a Grand Slam tournament but the top-tier category on the regular tour, and Indian Wells has become a signature stop. It has vast grounds, excellent facilities and robust attendance even if this year’s total of 329,764 fans, with vaccination required for spectators, was no match for the prepandemic figure of 475,372 in 2019.The event also has strong backing from its billionaire owner Larry Ellison, who was sitting in the front row of his box on Sunday to watch Nadal, his friend and regular houseguest, try to remain unbeaten in 2022.Like Roger Federer, Nadal has endured and impressed long enough to transcend nationality. A Spaniard, Nadal has been on tour for nearly 20 years and won his record 21st Grand Slam singles title at this year’s Australian Open.Fritz, who grew up in nearby San Diego County in the elite enclave of Rancho Santa Fe, considers the BNP Paribas Open his “home tournament,” and though he did get considerable support, it sometimes felt like he was playing an away game against Nadal.But Fritz would not be denied as he finished off the victory on his second match point, ripping a forehand approach shot down the line that the lunging Nadal could not handle.“No way!” the wide-eyed Fritz shouted repeatedly.A title certainly had looked unlikely a few hours earlier when Fritz walked onto the same court and shouted in anguish as he attempted to push off on his right foot during a warm-up session that lasted only a few minutes. “Like, the worst pain imaginable,” he said. “I was really upset, basically almost crying, because I thought I was going to have to pull out.”After numbing the ankle with painkilling treatment, he went back out to hit on an outside court and felt better. But his coaches, Michael Russell and Paul Annacone, and fitness trainer, Wolfgang Oswald, all advised against him playing in the final, concerned Fritz might do longer-term damage to the ankle he had twisted in the semifinal on Saturday.Fritz ignored the advice. “I feel bad for those guys: I’m so stubborn,” he said. “I went out there, and I seriously played the match with zero pain.”Still, he has scheduled for Monday a magnetic resonance imaging scan on his ankle. It looks much more unlikely that he will play in this week’s Miami Open than it does for Iga Swiatek, who won the women’s singles title earlier on Sunday.Iga Swiatek celebrated after defeating Maria Sakkari to win the women’s singles title.Ray Acevedo/EPA, via ShutterstockSwiatek, the 20-year-old Polish star who is as thoughtful as she is powerful, defeated Maria Sakkari, 6-4, 6-1, in what was a match for the title but also for the No. 2 ranking.Swiatek, now ranked only behind Ashleigh Barty, was the more reliable force in the gusting wind with her heavy groundstrokes, particularly the forehand that she hits with extreme topspin, like her role model Nadal. Until this year, her biggest titles have come on clay: above all the 2020 French Open title that she won at age 19 without dropping a set.But Swiatek clearly has the skill and will to be No. 1 and an all-surface threat. After winning the WTA 1000 in Doha, Qatar on a hardcourt, she ran her winning streak to 11 matches by winning for the first time in Indian Wells.This tournament has been the site of big breakthroughs in recent years: Naomi Osaka won in 2018 and went on to claim her first major at that year’s U.S. Open; Bianca Andreescu did the same double in 2019.Fritz, who had never reached a Masters 1000 final until this tournament, required third-set tiebreakers to get past Jaume Munar and Alex de Minaur and three sets to defeat Miomir Kecmanovic before finding his form and range against Andrey Rublev on Saturday.“His victory of yesterday is much bigger than his victory of today, because he had a much tougher opponent,” Nadal said of the Rublev match.Nadal’s glum comment was a reference to the pain that he began feeling in his chest late in his windblown semifinal victory over Spanish compatriot Carlos Alcaraz on Saturday.Nadal had to stretch and strain to adjust his shots to those unpredictable conditions, and though he said he had not yet received a clear diagnosis, it was possible that, in contorting himself in the wind against Alcaraz, he had strained a pectoral muscle or intercostal muscle near his ribs.“When I try to breathe, it’s painful and very uncomfortable,” said Nadal, now 20-1 in 2022. “But that’s it no? It’s not the moment to talk about that, honestly. Even if it’s obvious that I was not able to do the normal things today. That’s it. It’s a final. I tried. I lost against a great player.”Fritz’s parents were touring professionals who helped to shape his game when he was young. His mother Kathy May was ranked as high as No. 10 in singles in 1977 on the WTA Tour and reached three Grand Slam singles quarterfinals during her career.After her son’s victory, May spoke courtside with Martina Navratilova, whom May once defeated on tour, and later posed for photographs on court with her son.Fritz was married at 18 and is the father of a 5-year-old son Jordan but is now divorced and traveling with his girlfriend Morgan Riddle.“She’s so committed to making sure I’m doing all the right things, like I’m going to bed on time,” he said in an interview. “It’s just someone who’s holding me accountable, who also wants the same things I want, and it’s amazing just to have someone who cares and who can help me do the right things.”What Fritz wanted this season was a place in the top 10, and now he has one. He was ranked No. 39 in early October but said he tweaked his forehand technique after watching footage of a junior match he played against Rublev. “We were just absolutely crushing the ball,” Fritz said. “I watched exactly how I was hitting my forehand and just tried to copy it as much as possible.”He reached the semifinals in Indian Wells last year when the tournament was delayed and played in October, and he has been defeating top 20 players with regularity since then. He is the first American to win the singles in Indian Wells since 2001 when Andre Agassi won the men’s title and Serena Williams won the women’s title.Fritz was 3 at the time. But Indian Wells soon became a regular part of his life and when he returned this year, he looked up at the big photograph of reigning men’s champion Cameron Norrie on the wall of the players’ lounge and imagined his own photo taking its place.“All week, I was like, it would be so cool for that to be my picture,” he said. Mission accomplished, and a long-ago prediction has also come true.“He was just really, really proud of me,” Fritz said of his father, tearing up as he smiled. “It’s really tough to get a compliment out of him.” More

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      At Indian Wells, Ukrainian Tennis Stars Take Their Fight to the Court

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      Playing through fear of the war, Marta Kostyuk said that she must show “what it’s like having a Ukrainian heart” and that it “hurts” to see Russian players at the tournament.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — The Ukrainian teenager Marta Kostyuk and the Belgian veteran Maryna Zanevska played for more than three hours in the sun and a swirling wind.They played through pain and concern about issues much larger than tennis, and when they met on the same side of the net after Kostyuk’s victory, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6), 7-5, in the opening round on Thursday, they shared a long, tearful embrace and a similar message.“I told her that everything is going to be all right,” Zanevska said.“I told her that everything is going to be OK, that our parents are going to be OK,” Kostyuk said.Indian Wells is a 10-hour time change and more than 6,000 miles away from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, where Kostyuk was born, and from the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, where Zanevska was born before immigrating to Belgium in her teens and leaving her relatives behind.But Ukraine’s war with Russia, now into its third week, still feels inescapably close to the Ukrainian players competing at the BNP Paribas Open.“It’s just terrifying,” said Kostyuk, 19, one of tennis’s brightest young talents. “Especially in the beginning, the first couple days, my whole family was there. They were all in one house, so if anything was about to happen, I would lose the whole family. So, thinking of it is just you go to sleep and you don’t know if you wake up the next morning having the family.”She continued: “I’m coping the way I’ve been coping. Everyone is different. I chose to fight. I came here. At the beginning, I was feeling guilty that I’m not there. You know, the whole family is there but not me. I was feeling guilty that I’m playing tennis, that I have the sky above me that is blue and bright and very calm and mixed feelings. But you can’t be in this position, because everyone is fighting how they can fight, and my job is to play tennis, and this is the biggest way I can help in the current situation.”Daniil Medvedev of Russia, left, with another Russian player, Karen Khachanov, at Indian Wells this week.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesRussian players are in Indian Wells, too, but while Kostyuk played with Ukraine next to her name in the draw and on the scoreboard, the Russians and the Belarusian athletes, whose country has cooperated with Russia’s attack on Ukraine, are playing without national symbols or identification, as mandated by the men’s and women’s tours.Ukraine’s biggest tennis star, Elina Svitolina, lobbied successfully for that policy before she agreed to play Russia’s Anastasia Potapova in a match at the tournament in Monterrey, Mexico, earlier this month. But Kostyuk believes Russian players should be barred from competing on tour altogether, even as individuals.“I don’t agree with the action that has been taken,” she said. “Look at the other sports. Look at the big sports, what they did.”Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from the Paralympics in Beijing, and Russian national teams and clubs have been banned from major global sports like soccer and basketball. But though Russian and Belarusian track and field athletes have been barred from major competitions like this year’s world outdoor championships in Eugene, Ore., individual Russian athletes are still allowed to compete internationally for their non-Russian clubs in, for example, European soccer leagues and the N.H.L.Daniil Medvedev, the Russian men’s star who recently displaced Novak Djokovic atop the rankings, acknowledged that “there is always a possibility” that Russian tennis players could be banned altogether.“We never know,” Medvedev said in Indian Wells on Wednesday. “The way the situation is evolving in other sports, some sports made this decision, especially the team sports.”But for now, tennis has taken a comparatively moderate approach, although this year’s men’s and women’s tour events in Moscow have been canceled and Russian teams have been barred from the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup.“I do feel really sorry that the Russian players have to go through this, but the Ukrainian people are going through much worse things,” Maryna Zanevska said.Clive Brunskill/Getty Images“It’s a very tricky thing because I see that all other sports are removing Russians from their competitions,” Zanevska said. “And in the tennis community they did a few steps like removing the flag, and I can imagine it’s tough for the Russian players as well. But really unfortunately, Ukraine needs support as much as possible from all over the world, all the communities, all the types of sports. It counts. I do feel really sorry that the Russian players have to go through this, but the Ukrainian people are going through much worse things.”The Russian star Andrey Rublev wrote “No war please” on the camera in Dubai last month, and others like Medvedev and the Belarusian women’s stars Victoria Azarenka and Aryna Sabalenka have called for “peace.” But Kostyuk, whose yellow-and-blue tennis outfit here matches the colors of Ukraine’s flag, said she did not like such vague appeals.“For me ‘No war’ means a lot of things,” she said. “No war? We can stop the war by giving up, but I know this was never an option.”She added: “These ‘No war’ statements, they hurt me — they hurt me because they have no substance.”Such sentiments are, nonetheless, too strong for the tournament organizers here. On Thursday, as Kostyuk and Zanevska played in Stadium 6, Wilfred Williams and Mary Beth Williams, American fans, held up a homemade banner that featured two Ukrainian flags and two messages written in Russian: the word “war” with a diagonal line through it and “Let’s go!”After the match, a tournament official told the Williamses, who are siblings, that they could not continue to display the banner. The BNP Paribas Open does not allow politically oriented signs, although national flags are permitted, and the tournament, in a show of support, has placed Ukrainian flags in its two main stadiums.“We just love peace and love tennis,” Mary Beth Williams said.Ukraine’s biggest tennis star, Elina Svitolina, at the Monterrey Open last month.Daniel Becerril/ReutersKostyuk said she had been in Kyiv in late 2013 and early 2014 when a series of protests led to the ousting of Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s pro-Russia president who later fled the country.“I remember how united everyone was and I remember that we changed the government, and the fact that the guy decided that he thought that finally after eight years we would want to join him, I think, is a very big mistake,” Kostyuk said, referring to Vladimir V. Putin, Russia’s president.Both Kostyuk and Zanevska, whose parents remain in Odessa, said they were disappointed that Russian players had not expressed regret for the invasion to them directly.Russia-Ukraine War: Key Things to KnowCard 1 of 4On the ground. More

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      Strong Stance on China and Peng Shuai Helps Land WTA a New Title Sponsor

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      The women’s tennis tour has been without a title sponsor since 2010, but the medical diagnostics company Hologic has agreed to a multiyear deal with the WTA.After more than a decade without a title sponsor, the Women’s Tennis Association confirmed that it has agreed to a multiyear deal with Hologic, a leading global medical device and diagnostics company focused on women’s health.It is the first major sports sponsorship for Hologic, whose headquarters are in Marlborough, Mass., and it comes at a crucial moment for the WTA, which has suspended all of its tournaments in China and faced significant financial headwinds during the coronavirus pandemic because of tournament cancellations and reduced attendance and revenue at many events.“This comes at a very, very good time,” said Micky Lawler, the president of the WTA. “For us it’s the most important sponsorship of the WTA’s history and probably the biggest in women’s sports.”Lawler, citing a confidentiality agreement with Hologic, declined to state the precise terms of the deal, but it is significantly larger on an annual basis than the tour’s previous title sponsorship with the cellphone manufacturer Sony Ericsson, which ended in 2010. That six-year agreement, signed in 2005, was for $88 million — an average of $14.7 million annually.“I think we’re all very grateful after the last couple of years, with the challenges with the pandemic and everything going on in the world right now, to be able to have this kind of support from a company that cares so much about women’s health, wellness and equality,” said Danielle Collins, a finalist at this year’s Australian Open.Lisa Hellmann, a senior vice president for global human resources and corporate communication at Hologic, said the WTA’s strong stance in support of the Chinese player Peng Shuai was a factor in sparking Hologic’s interest.“I would consider it more a catalyst to the conversation than the deciding factor,” Hellmann said in a phone interview.What to Know About Peng ShuaiThe Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared from public view for weeks after she accused a top Chinese leader of sexual assault.What Happened: The athlete’s vanishing and subsequent reappearance in several videos prompted global concern over her well-being.A Silencing Operation: China turned to a tested playbook to stamp out discussion and shift the narrative. The effort didn’t always succeed.Eluding the Censors: Supporters of the tennis star found creative ways to voice their frustration online.A Sudden Reversal: Ms. Peng retracted her accusation in an interview in December. But her words seemed unlikely to quell fears for her safety.Peng disappeared from the public eye for more than two weeks in November after publishing a social media post in which she accused Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier of China, of pressuring her into sex. That post was quickly deleted and online conversation about her and her allegations was censored. The WTA, unable to make contact with Peng, called on Chinese authorities to make a “full and transparent” investigation into Peng’s allegations and end censorship on the subject.When those demands were not met, the WTA suspended all its tournaments in China, which has become one of the financial pillars of the women’s tour with 10 events that accounted for approximately one-third of the WTA’s annual revenue in 2019. The most lucrative and prestigious of those events was the WTA Finals, the tour’s year-end championship in Shenzhen, China, which offered record prize money of $14 million in 2019, including $4.42 million to the winner, Ashleigh Barty.The WTA has been an outlier in its approach to China. The ATP, which operates the men’s tennis tour, has not suspended its Chinese tournaments, and other professional leagues, including the N.B.A., have been reticent to confront Chinese authorities directly.Peng has reappeared in recent weeks and given some controlled interviews, claiming that she deleted the social media post herself and that she had been misunderstood and had not made sexual assault allegations. But the WTA, still lacking direct contact with Peng, has maintained its position.“We’ve been watching very closely some of the brave and really high-integrity moves that the WTA has made almost by themselves,” Hellmann said. “And that brought to our attention both the potential need they may have for title sponsorship, as well as really wanting to stand with and support the stance they are taking despite really negative impact on their business.”Hellmann added: “It put their calendar at risk. It put a huge audience at risk, but they stood up for what they believed to be right and stood up for their players and therefore, by extension, the voice of women throughout the world.”According to Lawler, the contact with Hologic began with a game of golf in December in San Diego, where Hologic has a major manufacturing facility, that involved Stephen MacMillan, Hologic’s chairman, and Kyle Filippelli, the boyfriend of the American tennis player CoCo Vandeweghe.Lawler said MacMillan mentioned the WTA’s “moral stance” on Peng and expressed interest to Filippelli in opening discussions with the WTA. MacMillan was put in contact with Alastair Garland, who is on the WTA’s board of directors, is the vice president at the management company Octagon and is married to Lawler’s daughter Charlotte.“We had two calls, one before Christmas, one right after,” Lawler said. “And then we went out to San Diego and we met with them, and that’s how it started. It clicked right away.”Hellmann said Hologic was, above all, interested in a partnership because of the WTA’s “global reach” and because her company’s goals matched up particularly well with the WTA’s.“We’re committed to improving the lives of women, to improving issues of equity and health, so that sort of fundamental DNA, if you will, is so aligned,” she said. “It made it an easy place to start.”Hellmann said that, as part of the sponsorship, current and former WTA players would share personal stories that underscore the importance of preventive testing and screening for diseases like breast and cervical cancer. The company also plans to work with the tour to create Hologic WTA Labs, which will be focused on research specific to female athletes.Collins, who has risen to No. 11 in the rankings after recovering from endometriosis last year, said that partnership resonated with her.“Having been someone that has dealt firsthand with women’s health issues, I really appreciate the research and them being a medical technology company that’s focused on creating things like mammogram machines and bone density and cervical cancer screening,” she said. “These are things that are so important to women’s health.”Lawler said Hologic’s name will be featured on the nets at all WTA events, beginning with next week’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. The company’s name will also be used on virtual signs on courts outside the double alleys at WTA 1000 and 500 tournaments.This is the longest the tour has gone without a title sponsor since its founding in 1973. Virginia Slims, the cigarette maker, was the first sponsor, making use of the slogan “You’ve come a long way baby,” before eventually being phased out because of health concerns. Kraft General Food, Corel, Sanex and Sony Ericsson followed as title sponsors.“We’re working on a series called ‘You’ve come a long way,’” Lawler said.She added: “We’ve learned a lot about the disastrous consequences of smoking, but at the time that was also a game changer,” she said of the Virginia Slims sponsorship. “With Hologic, it sort of is a full-circle story.”Lawler said part of the challenge of securing a title sponsor since Sony Ericsson’s contract ended in 2010 has been finding a company whose brand does not conflict with other tour and individual event sponsors.“You often find competing brands in the same industry,” she said. “This alignment is perfect, because there is no competition.”Lawler said the title sponsorship revenue would allow the tour to keep prize money equal with the men at its top-tier premier mandatory events and boost prize money at other tournaments.Shenzhen has not hosted the WTA Finals since 2019 because of pandemic restrictions, and with the suspension of Chinese tournaments, the tour is again exploring options elsewhere for this year’s event in November. It staged the tournament last year in Guadalajara, Mexico, albeit with much lower prize money of $5 million. Lawler said the tour hoped to have clarity on the finals by the end of March and would consult with Hologic and other sponsors if it does choose a new site.Hellmann said that China was a “growing market” for Hologic but expressed confidence that sponsoring the WTA would not affect that business.“In conversations with our international leadership, we do not anticipate there to be problems or conflicts with that,” she said. More

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      Where Is Peng Shuai? Tennis Players and Fans Still Want to Know

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      A central question, “Where is Peng Shuai?”, has represented concern for the star but also points to related questions about the future of tennis in China.MELBOURNE, Australia — Xiao, a Chinese-born and Melbourne-based artist, was disturbed that the plight of the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai had slipped off the radar ahead of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. So she designed a T-shirt, and much to the dismay of Australian Open organizers, wore it to Melbourne Park.Xiao was concerned that the unvaccinated tennis star Novak Djokovic’s fight with the Australian government had overshadowed the plight of Peng, one of China’s most popular tennis stars, who has mostly disappeared from public view since she accused a former top Chinese leader of sexual assault. Xiao’s shirt had on the front a picture of Peng’s face and on the back the slogan “Where is Peng Shuai?”, a message that has been used heavily online as a call to confront the Chinese Communist Party about the #MeToo accusation that prompted the women’s tennis tour to suspend its tournaments in China.Security guards later told Xiao, who also brought a sign with the slogan, that the items were not permitted, citing a tournament policy banning fans from making political statements.“It’s a reminder for people to not forget about Peng Shuai, especially since we had a huge Djokovic drama recently,” said Xiao, 26, who spoke on the condition that her full name not be used because of concerns for her safety after calling out the Chinese government.On Tuesday, after criticism from the 18-time major singles champion Martina Navratilova and others, the Australian Open softened its policy and is now allowing T-shirts and other personal messages supporting Peng, who has remained top of mind for many people involved in women’s tennis since her accusation first surfaced in November.Xiao’s shirt in support of Peng Shuai, which was banned by security guards at the tournament, though the ban was later reversed.Ben RothenbergPeng, a U.S. Open singles semifinalist and former world No. 1 in doubles, said then — in a post on her verified account on the social media site Weibo — that she had been sexually assaulted by Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier of China. In the post, Peng wrote that they had once been involved in a consensual relationship.The post was taken down minutes later. Online discussion of the allegation was censored within China, and Peng disappeared from public view for weeks while tennis officials and fellow players tried unsuccessfully to reach her. Peng, a three-time Olympian, later had conversations via video with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and other Olympic officials.In a statement after the first of those meetings in November, the I.O.C. announced that Peng had said she was “safe and well,” and she has since been seen publicly in China in several social media posts. On Dec. 1, Steve Simon, chief executive of the Women’s Tennis Association, suspended tournaments in the country and renewed his call for a “full and transparent” investigation from the Chinese authorities.Peng later told a reporter for a Singaporean newspaper in Beijing that her initial post had been misunderstood and that she had “never said or written that anyone has sexually assaulted me.”What to Know About Peng ShuaiThe Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared from public view for weeks after she accused a top Chinese leader of sexual assault.What Happened: The athlete’s vanishing and subsequent reappearance in several videos prompted global concern over her well-being.A Silencing Operation: China turned to a tested playbook to stamp out discussion and shift the narrative. The effort didn’t always succeed.Eluding the Censors: Supporters of the tennis star found creative ways to voice their frustration online.A Sudden Reversal: Ms. Peng retracted her accusation in an interview in December. But her words seemed unlikely to quell fears for her safety.But the WTA, whose leaders still have been unable to make direct contact with Peng, has not softened its stance or its demands, fearing that she has been coerced into the retraction.“We appreciate seeing the support continue for Peng Shuai,” Simon said Wednesday in an email. “The WTA is proud of Peng Shuai in speaking out for what is right, and we continue with our unwavering call for confirmation of Peng’s safety along with a full, fair and transparent investigation, without censorship, into her allegation of sexual assault. This is an issue that can never fade away.”Magda Linette, a leading Polish player and member of the WTA player council, said she hoped Peng could speak with players directly or with Simon. “If we could see her in an environment where we know she is not being really controlled and we can have at least a conversation, because she has been refusing that, I think that would be a really good step to trying to rebuild the trust, trying to rebuild the relationship again to see how things are going and how she is actually,” Linette said.In a photo made available by the International Olympic Committee, I.O.C. President Thomas Bach speaking with Peng Shuai during a videoconference.Greg Martin/OIS/IOC/EPA-EFE, via ShutterstockAlizé Cornet of France, a quarterfinalist at the Australian Open and one of the players to raise concerns about Peng’s safety in November, said some of her fears had been allayed.“It’s not the huge concern I had in November where I imagined she might have been buried in a ditch,” Cornet said last week.Cornet added that she believed that Peng was not in physical danger, but that “I’m concerned to know how things will go for her and what will become of her.”The renewed attention on Peng comes at a politically sensitive time with the Winter Olympics scheduled to begin in Beijing on Feb. 4. “It is kind of sad to see her story, especially when we are technically in an Asia-Pacific Slam, kind of not be a topic anymore,” said Jessica Pegula, an American player who reached the quarterfinals in Melbourne. “It’s disappointing, but it is kind of how the media is. Stuff blows up. Then it goes away, and it blows up again, and something else comes.”Pegula, who said she was not reassured by Peng’s recent video appearances, added: “Maybe it will catch up more when the Olympics come around.”The Australian Open, one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, has long positioned itself as the “Grand Slam of Asia-Pacific” in part because of concerns that China or another nation in the region might attempt to usurp its status. A state-owned Chinese liquor company, Luzhou Laojiao, has been a major tournament sponsor since 2019 and holds the naming rights for one of the principal show courts. Tennis Australia, which runs the event, has an office and presence in China and has backed tournaments in China that awarded wild-card entries into the Australian Open.Branding for Luzhou Laojiao’s Guojiao 1573 beverage is displayed prominently at the Australian Open.Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesThe Australian Open also has an agreement with CCTV, the national Chinese broadcaster, which has been broadcasting men’s and women’s matches from this Australian Open.But Chinese television did not broadcast the women’s tournaments in 2022 that were played ahead of the Open despite owning the rights. It is unclear whether this constitutes a boycott. In 2019, CCTV stopped airing N.B.A. games after Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets at the time, expressed support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.No events for the WTA or ATP, the professional men’s tennis tour, have been held in China since early 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, which had shut down international sports events in the country before the upcoming Olympics. The WTA had made China one of the pillars of its tour and agreed to a lucrative 10-year deal to stage its year-end championships, the WTA Finals, in Shenzhen. But the event, first held there in 2019, was moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, last year because of the pandemic with just eight weeks to prepare.The WTA would need to lift the suspension on Chinese tournaments if they were to take place this year. The China swing is scheduled for September, October and November. The WTA has not given a deadline but wants to finalize its fall schedule much earlier than it did in 2021. With China unlikely to launch a formal investigation into Peng’s allegations of sexual assault, cancellation of this year’s China swing appears likely, although Simon has said that this would not necessarily end the tour’s commitment to Chinese tournaments in 2023 and beyond.The ATP has made statements of support for Peng but has not suspended any events as a result of her situation. Pegula said she was disappointed the ATP had not done more. “I just think it was the right thing to do,” she said. “I wish they would have, and I guess they still could. We’ll see.”Reilly Opelka, one of the leading American male players, called the ATP’s hands-off approach “lame” and “weak.”“We rely so much less on China than the WTA does and look at that statement,” he said. “And that digs into a deeper problem: Why didn’t enough ATP players speak out? Is it conflicts of interest? It’s hard to say.”Interest in tennis in China boomed after Li Na became the country’s first Grand Slam singles champion, winning the 2011 French Open and 2014 Australian Open. Though no Chinese player has matched those results, promising talents are on the rise, including Wang Xinyu, a tall and powerful 20-year-old who pushed the No. 2-seeded Aryna Sabalenka to three sets in the second round of the Australian Open last week.Chinese players in Melbourne have refused one-on-one interviews with The New York Times, but Xu Yifan, a women’s doubles specialist, said during a news conference that it was important for tennis’ future in China to have tour events in the country. “Especially for Chinese players, we all enjoy,” said Xu, who declined to comment on Peng Shuai’s situation.“We didn’t really focus on it,” she said. “We just tried to focus on our tennis most of the time.”The WTA may be able to cover much of its lost Chinese revenue by adding events elsewhere. But there is still concern about the future.“We had a bunch of amazing tournaments in China, and I think in response, they’ve had so many players coming up and really have now so many juniors that are really good and tennis has been the strongest ever really in China,” Linette said. “So, I think for both of us, for the sake of the WTA and for China if it wants that their players keep developing and still have a chance to go out and do something more in tennis, it’s better for both that this situation be resolved in a peaceful manner.”For now, it remains a delicate dance. The artist Xiao said she hesitated before bringing her message of support for Peng to the Australian Open. “But I just feel like I had to do what I had to do,” she said.Spectators showed their support for Peng Shuai as Nick Kyrgios played doubles with Thanasi Kokkinakis.Dave Hunt/EPA, via ShutterstockXiao described the atmosphere on her first day at the tournament, Wednesday, as “quite chill.” “Two guards came and they just asked me, ‘Oh, what is Peng Shuai?’” Xiao recalled. “We explained to them the situation and they just said, ‘Oh, that’s an unfortunate story,’ and they just left. They were really nice about it, actually.”After posting pictures of her protest at the tournament on social media, Xiao was contacted by local activists who wanted to join her. On Friday, they went to a third-round women’s singles match featuring the Chinese player Wang Qiang, hoping they would be seen on broadcasts of the match back in China.While the group was moving between Wang’s match and a Naomi Osaka practice session, the situation turned more confrontational, leaving Xiao “on the verge of a panic attack” as an encounter between the activists and security guards was filmed for use on the activists’ social media accounts.Xiao said she was offered a chance to stay at the tournament if she stashed the offending items in a booth outside the entrance but chose to leave Melbourne Park instead. Hours later, on Friday evening, Xiao returned and wrote “Where is Peng Shuai?” in chalk on an exterior wall of the tournament grounds.Xiao said she “knew the rules from the beginning” against political banners at the tournament and was not surprised that Tennis Australia initially enforced them.“I kind of expect it,” Xiao said, “because they have Chinese sponsors, right?”Xiao’s graffiti on the exterior wall of the tournament grounds.Ben RothenbergCraig Tiley, chief executive of Tennis Australia, said in an interview on Monday that the tournament’s view was not influenced by its Chinese commercial interests. He said Tennis Australia backed the WTA’s stance on Peng Shuai and had attempted to use its connections in China to establish contact with her.“It doesn’t have to just be on a political or commercial issue,” Tiley said. “If we make the assessment that they come in to disrupt the comfort and safety of our fans, it’s not going to be welcome. But if they want to come in with a T-shirt and it says, ‘Where is Peng Shuai?’ they can do that. We don’t have a problem with that.”The shift by tournament officials does not change the question posed by Xiao and others. The activists who joined the artist have raised money to pay for a thousand more T-shirts that they plan to hand out to spectators before the women’s singles final. More

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      The Mental Health of Tennis Players Is No Longer in the Shadows

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      The sport is very stressful, and many professionals had to often manage their anxiety alone. Now the tours provide help.Robin Soderling was at the peak of his prowess when the walls started crumbling.In 2009, when Soderling was just 24, he stunned the four-time defending champion Rafael Nadal en route to the final of the French Open.Soderling reached the final again in 2010, losing to Nadal. By the end of the season, Soderling was ranked No. 4 in the world.Eight months later, he played his final match on the ATP Tour.“I always felt like I was under pressure,” Soderling, now 37, said on a video call from his home near Stockholm. “The better I became, the worse it got. Basically, every match I played I was the favorite. When I won, it was more of a relief than happy. When I lost, it was a disaster. Losing a tennis match made me feel like a terrible person.”When anxiety and panic attacks forced Robin Soderling of Sweden out of competition a decade ago, such issues weren’t talked about, he said. “There was such a big stigma.”Oscar Del Pozo/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesExpectations were high as soon as he had success as a junior. But by the time he was 26, Soderling was done, having experienced anxiety and panic attacks as well as debilitating mononucleosis.“My entire immune system was bad because of the mental stress I put on myself,” he said. “Even on my rest days I was never switched off. Then my body just tipped over. I went from being able to play a five-set match on clay to not being able to walk up the stairs. But I couldn’t really talk to many people about it because there was such a big stigma.”Sports psychologists are now a regular presence on the Women’s Tennis Association and ATP Tours. And almost no one is afraid to talk about it. At last year’s WTA Finals, most of the eight top singles players spoke freely about receiving counseling for mental health issues.“I’ve been working with a psychologist for years,” said Maria Sakkari, a semifinalist at the French and United States Opens in 2021. “I invested a lot in that. It’s probably the best gift I’ve ever done for myself.”Because tennis is an individual sport, most players are on their own with limited support networks. They travel for 11 months of the year and almost everyone regularly loses.“Tennis is one of the toughest sports because there are constant changes that sports with a consistent schedule don’t have,” said Danielle Collins, a top 30 player. “We never know what time we’re going to play. We travel from city to city each week on different continents, with different cultures, even different foods. We even play with different tennis balls. And we lose every week unless you win the tournament. That’s something that you have to adjust to.”Last October, on World Mental Health Day, Iga Swiatek, the 2020 French Open champion, announced she was donating $50,000 in prize money to a mental-health organization. She is open about the value of having the psychologist Daria Abramowicz as a member of her traveling staff. Venus Williams has partnered with the WTA to donate $2 million to BetterHelp, an online therapy site, to provide free service.Sports psychology and mental wellness are not new concepts. Ivan Lendl hired the therapist Alexis Castorri in 1985 to help him after he had lost three straight U.S. Open finals. He went on to win the next three. But only recently have players been so open about seeking counseling.Mardy Fish, the former touring pro and captain of the United States Davis Cup team, opened the discussion when he said he had panic attacks before his fourth-round match against Roger Federer at the 2012 U.S. Open. Fish withdrew from that match and was subsequently diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. He shed light on his journey in a Netflix documentary.Iga Swiatek of Poland, who won the French Open in 2020, has a psychologist on her traveling staff.Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesNaomi Osaka made headlines last May when she dropped out of the French Open, citing mental health concerns. She lost in the third round at the U.S. Open in September, and just returned to the tour in Australia this month.Jim Loehr, a clinical psychologist, has been practicing since the 1970s and founded the Center for Athletic Excellence in Denver. He has seen the field evolve.“Back then, people were very quiet about seeing anyone who could help their game mentally,” said Loehr, who is also a co-founder of the Human Performance Institute. “And we couldn’t talk about it either because our work is confidential. Now, everyone seems to have a sports psychologist.“That makes perfect sense,” he said. “Athletes need a team around them in order to ignite extraordinary performances. A coach is there for biomechanical expertise in stroke production. Then there are physios and massage therapists to facilitate healing and trainers, nutritionists, sports psychologists, even spiritual advisers. The body is pretty complicated, and it works best when all parts are integrated. The healthier and happier you are, the more you light it up on the court.”The WTA and the ATP have also taken note of the importance of well-being. The ATP has teamed with Sporting Chance, a British mental health organization. ATP players can call counselors and therapists 24 hours a day, seven days a week.“We have a hand-in-hand collaboration that makes it feel like an in-house service,” said Ross Hutchins, a former tour player and the ATP’s chief tour officer. “The goal is to make players more open to talking about their issues in a more comfortable manner. They may not want to chitchat about it the way they would with physical injuries, but we want to make it OK for them to feel any way they do.”Maria Sakkari, a semifinalist at the French and United States Opens in 2021, said she has long worked with a psychologist. “It’s probably the best gift I’ve ever done for myself.”Hector Vivas/Getty Images The WTA, which has offered mental health services for more than 20 years, recently began a more aggressive approach by adding four mental health care providers, one of whom is at tournaments year-round. Services include strategies for managing the mental and emotional challenges of match play, handling finances, and transitioning to life after tennis.“Our job is to help the athletes be their best outside of the court,” said Becky Ahlgren Bedics, the WTA’s vice president for mental health and wellness. “We don’t touch the X’s and O’s. We’re part of the holistic development. We are there to help with the pebble in your shoe during a run. We say, ‘Let’s stop and take the pebble out before it gets to be a bigger problem.’”The major championships are on board as well. At the Australian Open, which begins on Monday, a sports psychiatrist and psychologist are available to players. So are health and well-being experts. There are quiet rooms where players can relax and focus without distraction. There are even soundproof, private pods within the player areas.Victoria Azarenka, a two-time Australian Open champion, said the tours were taking the right steps.“I think the world is changing their perception of what mental health is,” she said. “We have that empathy when we see somebody who is physically hurt. Mental health is something that is invisible. But it is as strong, as powerful, as physical health.”Soderling doesn’t play much tennis anymore, other than with his two children. After multiple attempts at a comeback, each time followed by another panic attack, he stopped. Now he owns RS Sports, a sportswear company, and serves as captain of the Swedish Davis Cup team. He considers himself healed and will help anyone who asks.“As an athlete we’re treated to the best medical care you could have if you have a knee or a wrist injury,” Soderling said. “But it’s taken a long time to work with the mental aspect. It’s a shame it’s called mental health because it was not only in my head. My whole body was affected.“I’m glad to see there’s a better understanding of mental health today,” he added. “But it’s sad that it had to happen to so many people before it was taken seriously.” More

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      Putting Principles Before Profits, Steve Simon Takes a Stand

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      The WTA chief has spent years in tennis working quietly to put players first. Suspending tournaments in China over the treatment of star Peng Shuai has made him the most talked-about leader in sports.Guadalajara, Mexico, gave a party for women’s tennis last month, and when it ended, with Garbiñe Muguruza winning the WTA Finals, the season’s last tournament, confetti fell through the air and a mariachi band turned the Akron Tennis Stadium into a fiesta.In the middle of it, Steve Simon, the bespectacled chairman and chief executive of the WTA Tour, stood quietly and unsmiling in a blue business suit with his hands clasped. He shared the occasional quiet word with Chris Evert and Billie Jean King, or one of the local officials he had helped persuade into holding the event on short notice, after the regular host, Shenzhen, China, pulled out because of the pandemic.Simon had plenty else on his mind. As the tournament and closing celebration unfolded, a geopolitical crisis with women’s tennis at its center had occupied much of his time and he was leading the tour down an uncertain path.On Nov. 2, the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai accused Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier of China, of sexually assaulting her in social media posts that were quickly deleted.The Chinese government removed all mentions of Peng’s accusation, and coverage of Peng from news media outside China has been censored. She largely disappeared from public life, and Simon has been unable to communicate with her despite repeated attempts.On Nov. 13, Simon went public with his frustration, demanding that he and the WTA be able to speak with Peng independently and that Chinese officials conduct a transparent investigation into her allegations. If they did not comply, Simon said, the WTA would consider removing its nine tournaments from China, including the Tour Finals, moves that could cost women’s tennis tens and perhaps hundreds, of millions of dollars over the next decade.On Wednesday, Simon followed through on his threat, announcing that after weeks of failed attempts to communicate with Peng, and no sign of an investigation or evidence that Peng can speak freely, the WTA was immediately suspending all of its tournaments in China. Simon’s stridency, in contrast to other international sports leagues and organizations that do business in China, has turned Simon, a mild-mannered former tournament director who prefers to operate in the background and leave the spotlight to his star players, into the most talked-about leader in sports.“This is not where I wanted to end up,” Simon said in an interview Wednesday night, speaking about the WTA Tour, but also, in a sense, about himself.Peng Shuai competing at the Australian Open in 2017.Clive Brunskill/Getty Images“I don’t want this to be about me,” he added. “Nothing prepared me for it, other than just trying to do what is right and communicating that with the players.”Simon’s refusal to accept China’s authoritarian stance on human rights once it directly affected one of his players stands in stark contrast to several high-profile leaders in sports who have repeatedly bent to the desires of the Chinese, including Adam Silver, the commissioner of the N.B.A., and Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee.Simon has been concerned about Peng’s physical safety but also believed, as did the members of his player council and others he communicates with regularly in a player chat group, that the silencing of Peng and her sexual assault allegation amounted to a direct attack on the principle of equality upon which the WTA was founded.“It’s now December and we’ve not seen any meaningful progress,” he said Wednesday night.Simon, a 66-year-old Southern California native, played tennis at Long Beach State University and mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 1981 alongside Lea Antonoplis. He has spent his adult life in tennis coaching, running the tennis program for Adidas, and organizing and eventually directing the BNP Paribas Open, a joint men’s and women’s event in Indian Wells, Calif., known as the fifth Grand Slam.All along, Simon was quietly gaining authority within tennis circles, even if few of the players knew him particularly well. He began serving on the board of the WTA in 2004.In 2009, he worked to get Stacey Allaster, then the president of the WTA, appointed as the next chief executive. Allaster said during a rough moment for her candidacy, she privately asked Simon if he might be a better fit to lead the organization.“Without a blink he turned to me and said, ‘No, we’re going to stay the course,’” Allaster said.Six years later, after Allaster decided to step down, the WTA board unanimously selected Simon to succeed her. He has since cultivated the support of the sport’s biggest stars of the present and past, including Serena Williams and King, the founder of the WTA, while maintaining his decades-long relationships with the tournament directors who were his initial base of support.“He’s a rarity in sports,” said John Tobias, a prominent tennis agent who represents Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open women’s singles champion. “An executive who is always trying to put the focus on the tour and the players.”Before this month, Simon was best known for the work he performed behind the scenes, along with the former pro Charlie Pasarell and others, to bring Venus and Serena Williams back to Indian Wells after a 14-year absence. Serena Williams was ceaselessly booed by fans after her sister withdrew from a semifinal match between them. Williams believed that race had played a role in how fans treated her. She said at the time that Simon spent a long time listening to what she had to say on the matter and that played a major role in her decision to return.Understand the Disappearance of Peng ShuaiCard 1 of 5Where is Peng Shuai? More

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      WTA Suspends Tournaments in China Over Treatment of Peng Shuai

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      Steve Simon said Wednesday that the women’s tennis tour would not stage tournaments in China, including Hong Kong, because he has been unable to communicate with Peng despite repeated attempts.The women’s professional tennis tour announced Wednesday that it was immediately suspending all tournaments in China, including Hong Kong, in response to the disappearance from public life of the tennis star Peng Shuai after she accused a top Communist Party leader of sexual assault.With the move, the Women’s Tennis Association became the only major sports organization to push back against China’s increasingly authoritarian government. Women’s tennis officials made the decision after they were unable to speak directly with Peng after she accused Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier of China, in social media posts that were quickly deleted.The Chinese government quickly removed all mentions of Peng’s accusation, and coverage of Peng from news media outside China has been censored. She has not been seen in public except in the company of government officials in more than two weeks.Peng, 35, a Grand Slam doubles champion and three-time Olympian, resurfaced late last month in a series of appearances with Chinese officials, including in a video conference with Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, which will bring the Winter Games to Beijing in February.“While we now know where Peng is, I have serious doubts that she is free, safe and not subject to censorship, coercion and intimidation,” Steve Simon, the chief executive of the Women’s Tennis Association, said in a statement.“If powerful people can suppress the voices of women and sweep allegations of sexual assault under the rug, then the basis on which the WTA was founded — equality for women — would suffer an immense setback,” he added. “I will not and cannot let that happen to the WTA and its players.”The WTA held its 2019 Tour Finals in Shenzhen, China.Aly Song/ReutersThe suspension comes just two months before the start of an Olympics that makes Beijing the first city to host both the summer and winter Games. The I.O.C. has not indicated that the Peng controversy would affect the Games, with Richard W. Pound, a Canadian lawyer and the organization’s longest-serving member, saying that the committee prefers “quiet and discreet diplomacy.”No other sports organization has followed the WTA’s lead.“We cannot walk away from issues related to sexual assault,” Simon told The Times in an interview Wednesday night. “If we do that we are telling the world that is OK and it’s not important. That is what this is about.”“It’s the right move and I’m so proud of the WTA for taking it,” Martina Navratilova, the former champion, said. “Now we are just going to have to see if the other sports, especially the ATP, will follow.”The governing body for the men’s tour, the Association of Tennis Professionals, asked for an investigation into Peng’s safety, but has not suggested it would boycott China. And on Tuesday, World Athletics, the governing body for track and field, affirmed that it would hold its relay championships in Guangzhou in 2023. The organization is led by Sebastian Coe, a leading member of the I.O.C.China is a vast market that has provided a huge opportunity for growth among sports organizations, including Premier League soccer, the National Basketball Association, and professional tennis and golf. Doing business in China has become both lucrative and complicated in recent years as the country’s government has cracked down on free speech and political protest. Its treatment of Muslim minorities has been deemed genocide by the United States and lawmakers in several nations.Michael Lynch, who led the sports marketing division for Visa during his 16-year tenure at the company, said he expected that tennis would not be the only sport to re-examine its business in China because of the treatment of Peng. “Let’s hope this is not considered a female problem,” Lynch said. “They are all athletes. It doesn’t matter sex or gender. If there is more pressure that needs to be applied, sports will support one another. What we saw with Black Lives Matter is this is about human rights and everyone is coming to the table and supporting each other.”Women’s tennis stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years by pulling out of China. The tour has a 10-year deal to hold its season-ending tournament in Shenzhen, where organizers committed to some $150 million in prize money and millions more on tennis development in the country. The organization also holds eight other tournaments in the country.“I don’t see how I can ask our athletes to compete there when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely and has seemingly been pressured to contradict her allegation of sexual assault,” Simon said. “Given the current state of affairs, I am also greatly concerned about the risks that all of our players and staff could face if we were to hold events in China in 2022.”Simon said that women’s tennis would not return to China until its officials could speak to Peng without government interference and a full investigation into her assault accusations could be conducted. “China’s leaders have left the WTA with no choice.”Peng accused Zhang, 75, of sexually assaulting her at his home three years ago. She also described having had an on-and-off consensual relationship with Zhang.Then she quickly dropped out of public life. As demands for an inquiry grew louder, China’s state-owned broadcaster released a message that it claimed was from Peng, recanting her accusations.“Hello everyone this is Peng Shuai,” it stated before calling her initial accusation of sexual assault untrue. “I’m not missing, nor am I unsafe. I’ve been resting at home and everything is fine. Thank you again for caring about me.”The message, which few believed was actually from Peng herself, only raised concerns further, as did additional photos and videos of her that began to appear — all from sources in China’s government-controlled media.Understand the Disappearance of Peng ShuaiCard 1 of 5Where is Peng Shuai? More