Simon continued: “We don’t have a lot of contact coming out the region.
“Contact that we have had from the region has basically been consistent. She’s in Beijing, she’s fine, she’s not under no physical stress etc. Which is what we’ve seen in the videos and the pictures that we’ve seen.
“We just feel very strongly that this has certainly been orchestrated. It’s consistent with those that are very familiar with the region as to how these things are handled over there. It is fully expected.”
He also reiterated the demands he had previously communicated – asking for the French Open and Wimbledon doubles champion to be allowed to speak free of coercion and control, and for a full investigation into her allegations against Zhang.
The WTA CEO added: “And as you reflected before we have two principal points right now which is, we definitely want to confirm that Peng is available to speak without censorship or any pressures or any restrictions. And we do want a full and transparent investigation of these very serious allegations.”
