Peng Shuai: WTA head Steve Simon reveals 'no significant progress made'

WTA chief executive Steve Simon has revealed ‘no significant progress has been reached’ on securing an investigation into sexual assault allegations made by Peng Shuai.

Peng, a former world number one doubles player, made sexual allegations against China’s former Vice Premier, Zhang Gaoli, at the start of November.

In a post on Weibo, she claimed she was coerced into having sex with Zhang, which began an on-off consensual relationship with the former Politburo Standing Committee member.

Her post was deleted around 30 minutes after it was published, and she subsequently disappeared from public view for three weeks, sparking serious concern about her wellbeing.

When Peng reappeared, she retracted the allegations during an interview with French newspaper L’Equipe and made a number of public appearances at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Nonetheless, Simon, who has pulled all tournaments from China and Hong Kong until there is a “full, fair and transparent” investigation into the allegations, remains resolute on the matter.

“A lot of work continues to go on,” he told BBC Sport. “We will never stop working on the process. We are strong and we will be resilient.

“What we have said we were going to do so far, we are not going to waver from that. But no significant progress has been reached.”

The withdrawal from China had serious financial consequences for the WTA, but these have been offset by a new title sponsorship deal with medical technology company Hologic.

“They became aware of us because of the stance we took on Peng Shuai,” Simon said. “I think it encouraged them that we were someone that they want to talk to.”

Simon also discussed his decision to allow players from Belarus and Russia to continue to compete on the WTA