China’s Peng Shuai has denied allegations that she tried to change her doubles partner after the sign-in deadline at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships.
On Wednesday it was announced that the 32-year-old has been hit with a six-month suspension with immediate effect by the sport’s anti-corruption body. Three of those months are suspended. An independent investigation concluded that Shuai tried to persuade a player to withdraw with the use of a financial incentive. That player is said to be Alison Van Uytvanck. Neither player ended up playing in the doubles at that tournament.
“Peng Shuai was found to have used coercion and offered the possibility of financial reward in return for her main draw partner agreeing to withdraw from the ladies doubles event at Wimbledon 2017.” A statement from the Tennis Integrity Unit reads.
“Although the offer was refused and Peng Shuai did not subsequently compete at The Championships, the offer constituted a breach of Section D.1.d of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP).”
Despite the verdict, which also resulted in a three-month ban for Shuai’s former coach Bertrand Perret, she has vowed not to walk away from the sport. In a statement uploaded to her Weibo account, the Chinese player insisted that she has never tried to persuade somebody to withdraw from a tournament. Stating that the player involved, Van Uytvanck, did so on her own accord.
“During the 20 years of my professional career I have never used any ways to force a partner to drop out of a match,” Shuai 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.”
The two-time grand slam doubles champion has confirmed that she is pondering launching an appeal against her conviction. It is unclear if the appeal will also include her former coach. Perret is the current coach of Tunisian player Ons Jabeur.
“In the meantime, I will not retire. I will discuss and solve whether to appeal or not with a lawyer,” she stated.
If an appeal isn’t launched, both Shuai and Perret are eligible to return to the tour from November 8th providing they commit no further violations.
