BEIJING
\nThe boss of women\u2019s tennis has cast doubt on an email posted on China\u2019s media purportedly from tennis star Peng Shuai, saying it \u201conly raises my concerns as to her safety.\u201d
\nSteve Simon, chairman of the WTA, said in a statement that he had a \u201chard time believing\u201d the email was written by Peng, who has not been heard from since alleging two weeks ago that a powerful Chinese politician had sexually assaulted her.
\nPeng, a former Wimbledon and French Open doubles champion, alleged on the Twitter-like Weibo earlier this month that former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli had \u201cforced\u201d her into sex during a long-term on-off relationship.
\nThe claims were quickly scrubbed from social media and she has not been seen since, drawing mounting concern over her wellbeing.
\nHowever, state-run CGTN published a screenshot on Twitter of what it said was an email written by Peng to Simon and other WTA officials. In the email, Peng purportedly claims that her earlier accusations of sexual abuse are \u201cnot true\u201d and says she is \u201cresting at home and everything is fine\u201d.
\nBut doubts were quickly flagged about the language used in the purported email from Peng, which Twitter users noted had a cursor visible in the screenshot posted by CGTN. Simon said he was struggling to believe it was authentic.
\n\u201cThe statement released today by Chinese state media concerning Peng Shuai only raises my concerns as to her safety and whereabouts,\u201d Simon wrote in a statement.
\n\u201cI have a hard time believing that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received or believes what is being attributed to her,\u201d he added.
\nHe said he had been repeatedly trying to reach her via numerous forms of communication, to no avail.
\nHe called for \u201cindependent and verifiable proof that she is safe\u201d.
\n\u201cPeng Shuai displayed incredible courage in describing an allegation of sexual assault against a former top official in the Chinese government,\u201d said Simon.
\n\u201cHer allegation of sexual assault must be respected, investigated with full transparency and without censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING The boss of women\u2019s tennis has cast doubt on an email posted on China\u2019s media purportedly from tennis star Peng Shuai, saying it \u201conly raises my concerns as to her safety.\u201d Steve Simon, chairman of the WTA, said in a statement that he had a \u201chard time believing\u201d the email was written by Peng, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[341,340],"class_list":{"0":"post-228240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports","7":"tag-concern","8":"tag-shuai"},"yoast_head":"\n