World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev believes that playing in a Chinese competition would be unsettling for the players.
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Daniil Medvedev has joined Novak Djokovic in supporting the WTA’s decision to halt all tournaments in China due to concerns about Peng Shuai. Shuai, a tennis player, went reportedly missing last month after accusing a senior Chinese politician of sexual abuse in a Weibo post. Her post on the popular Chinese website was later removed, as was all of her recent content. Shuai became unreachable at that point, leaving many in the tennis community concerned for her safety.
Days later, Chinese state media released a number of videos purporting to show the former Wimbledon doubles champion safe and well at a Beijing restaurant and a local tournament, but many were sceptical. As a result, the association suspended all events in China on Wednesday, but the ATP – the men’s game’s main Tour – refused to follow suit the next day.
Following the contentious decision, world No. 2 Medvedev believes that competing in a Chinese competition would be unsettling for the players. “If there was a tournament in China next week, nobody would be comfortable,” he said.
This comes after men’s world No. 1 Novak Djokovic said he ‘fully backed’ the WTA’s decision to suspend Chinese events, calling it ‘courageous.’
“I support fully the WTA’s stance because we don’t have enough information about Peng Shuai and her well-being,” the Serbian said. “I think the position of the WTA is very bold and very courageous. Her health was of the utmost importance to the world of tennis.”
While Medvedev echoed Djokovic’s sentiments and expressed his support for the WTA, the Russian refused to criticise the ATP’s decision to keep Chinese events on its calendar.
“There are problems in a lot of countries, and yet we play tennis tournaments in most of them,” he said. “What we all want is to see that Peng is fine, which we do not know 100%. The WTA made a strong decision, but I don’t want to blame anyone who doesn’t make the same decision. Maybe Andrea (Gaudenzi, the president of ATP) has another vision, I do not want to say who did well or bad,” Medvedev added.
