Tennis star Naomi Osaka says she is shocked to listen to a few teammate who has been silent since sexual harassment allegations in opposition to a former prime authorities official in China.
The Japanese former No.1-ranked, four-time main winner joined these in a put up Wednesday on social media asking: Where’s Peng Shuai?
In a Twitter put up beneath the _ hashtag WhereIspengshui _ Osaka wrote: “Not sure if you’re following the news, but I was recently informed of a fellow tennis player who, shortly after revealing this went missing that she was sexually abused. Censorship is not okay at any cost.”
Osaka, 24, who hasn’t performed at Tour-level since her US Open title protection resulted in September, mentioned she hopes Peng and her household are “safe and well.”
“I am shocked by the current situation,” she wrote, “and I am sending love and lighting her way.”
, #WhereIsPengShuai pic.twitter.com/51qcyDtzLq
— Naomi Osaka Naomi Osaka (@naomiosaka) November 16, 2021
1 Novak Djokovic and the organizers of the ladies’s and males’s skilled tennis excursions are calling for a full investigation into the allegations leveled by the two-time Grand Slam doubles champion.
Peng wrote in a prolonged social media put up earlier this month {that a} former deputy prime minister had pressured her to have intercourse regardless of repeated refusals. The put up was faraway from her verified account on Weibo, a serious Chinese social media platform, and China’s solely state-controlled media has suppressed all reporting on the matter.
Reports of the allegations circulated abroad for greater than per week earlier than WTA President and CEO Steve Simon issued an announcement saying, “Peng Shuai, and all women, deserve a hearing, not censorship.”
“Her allegation of a former Chinese leader’s involvement in sexual harassment must be taken extremely seriously.”
On Monday after the lads’s tour, ATP president Andrea Gaudenzi mentioned tennis officers have been “deeply concerned by the uncertainty surrounding the immediate safety and whereabouts of WTA player Peng Shuai.”
“We are encouraged by the recent assurances received by the WTA that it is safe and responsible and will continue to monitor the situation closely,” Gaudenzi mentioned. “Separately, we stand in full support of the WTA’s call for a full, fair and transparent investigation into the allegations of sexual harassment against Peng Shuai.”
Peng, 35, wrote that former deputy prime minister and member of the ruling Communist Party’s omnipotent Politburo Standing Committee Zhang Gaoli pressured her to have intercourse three years in the past regardless of repeated refusals after a spherical of tennis . She mentioned that Zhang’s spouse guarded the door through the incident.
Her put up additionally mentioned that he had intercourse as soon as seven years in the past and after that he had emotions for her.
As is at all times the case for retired Chinese officers, 75-year-old Zhang disappeared from the general public eye after his retirement in 2018 and has no intimate skilled or political ties with present leaders.
Peng received 23 tour-level doubles titles, together with Wimbledon in 2013 and the French Open in 2014. She was a semifinalist in singles on the US Open in 2014. Peng hasn’t performed on the prime stage because the Qatar Open in February. Last yr, earlier than the restrictions imposed for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Peng additionally performed in three Olympics, 2008, 2012 and 2016_ however the International Olympic Committee remained silent on his allegations. The IOC and China have been organizing the Beijing Winter Olympics since 4 February.
His cost in opposition to a key authorities official adopted the (hash)MeToo motion in China in 2018 earlier than being shut down largely by authorities in the identical yr.
Asked throughout a every day briefing earlier this week about Peng’s allegation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian mentioned: “I haven’t heard of this matter, and it’s not a diplomatic question.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
