Banned Peng Shuai denies 'coercion' against partner

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Two-time Grand Slam women’s doubles champion Peng Shuai has denied charges of coercing her partner to withdraw from Wimbledon last year after the Chinese tennis star was banned for six months and fined 10,000 US dollars on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old was penalized by the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), the game’s anti-corruption body, for her action that was seen as violation of the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) code of conduct.

TIU claimed that Peng "used coercion and offered the possibility of financial reward" to convince her doubles partner to pull out of Wimbledon in 2017 after the sign-in deadline so that she could swap partners.”

Peng took to China’s Twitter-like Weibo social media platform to dismiss the charges asserting there was no coercion involved.

The TIU did not name the other player involved, but Peng in her response on Weibo named the Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck, 24, and said she had not tried to coerce her.

Alison Van Uytvanck, Australian Open, Melbourne, January 15, 2018 /VCG Photo

"During the 20 years of my professional career I have never used any ways to force a partner to drop out of a match," Peng wrote on Weibo. "It was completely her own action to drop out of the doubles. We never gave her any money to drop out of the match with a fake injury."

TIU however said that Peng had the “offer” rebuffed and failed to play doubles at Wimbledon last year.

The Chinese player clarified on Weibo that the financial aspect emerged as Van Uytvnack would have to change her schedule. As a result, Peng offered prize money from the first round which she had earned playing alongside India's Sania Mirza as compensation for Van Uytvnack’s transport costs and rent.

Sania Mirza of India and Shuai Peng of China in action during the Ladies Doubles semi final against Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei and Martina Hingis of Switzerland at the 2017 Wuhan Open on September 29, 2017 in Wuhan, China. /VCG Photo

Later, the former world No. 1 doubles player told CGTN’s sister channel CCTV5”, “I’m sorry about this issue. I will seek advice from Women's Tennis Association (WTA) if I am ever confused about the rules in the future, so that I can prevent this kind of thing from happening again.”

“Now I am going to take a break, so I have enough time for training in the coming months. I will make a decision about my future at the end of the season and look at the schedule, my ranking, and my health situation.”

The 2014 US Open semi-finalist is yet to reveal if she will appeal. Peng, whose former coach Bertrand Perret was also banned for three months for his role in the murky affair, said she is considering an appeal.

"In the meantime, I will not retire. I will discuss and solve whether to appeal or not with a lawyer," she wrote on Weibo. "Thanks for everyone's concern."

Peng Shuai publishes her explanation about “coercion” by social media /Screenshot from Peng Shuai's Weibo

Here is the translation of Peng Shuai's explanation on Weibo:

"This morning, I received an infringement-notice on e-mail from TIU.

"During the 20 years of my professional career I have never used any way to force a partner to drop out of a match.

"In the last year’s Wimbledon tournament, Sania Mirza and my original partner (Alison Van Uytvanck) were injured successively, so, I had to change my partner for the moment.

"My foreign coach of the time had some problems in communication with the coach of Van Uytvanck, and was denounced by him.

"I was asked to go to TIU to be interrogated, and the interrogator also thought that there were some mistakes between the two sides.

"The interrogator asked me to find the chief adjudicator of WTA and Van Uytvanck together to explain our sides.

"After communicating with the chief adjudicator, I was made aware of the rules that I could not change partner with Mirza, and I had to play the doubles with Van Uytvanck.

"I waited for Van Uytvanck for more than three hours, but she didn’t come.

"When the game started, I received her message which said that she withdrew from the match due to an injury.

"Her withdrawal was entirely her individual decision, and we never gave her any money to fake injury or to withdraw.

"At that moment, Mirza and I had the same strong willingness of being matched as doubles, and through Bertrand’s advice, we considered offering her (Van Uytvanck) the prize money from the first round. This was to compensate her accommodation and schedule change.

"Besides, I am not aware of the exact content of conversation between my former coach Bertrand and Van Uytvanck’s coach.

"In the meantime, I will not retire. I will discuss and solve whether to appeal or not with a lawyer.

"Thanks for everyone's concern."