In a few weeks, he went from being the complete stranger, despite his costume as the boss of world women’s tennis, to “the man who dared to say no to China”. Steve Simon, 66, was until then the very discreet president of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), the body that governs the women’s tennis circuit. Her steadfastness in protecting her players was illustrated in 2016, just a few months after her arrival at the head of the organization, but at the time, she was far from unanimous. “Maria [Sharapova] is a leader and I have always known her as a woman of great integrity ”, had supported the American when the former Russian world number one tested positive for meldonium.
Steve Simon’s stance earns him a concert of praise both on and off the circuit
This time, his stance earned him a concert of praise both on and off the circuit. The former director of the Californian tournament in Indian Wells made a decision as rare as it was cheeky in a world of sport more inclined to put the wallet before moral or humanistic considerations. 1er December, Mr. Simon announced “The immediate suspension of all WTA tournaments in China, including in Hong Kong”. He had uttered the threat about two weeks after the start of the “Peng Shuai affair”. On November 2, the former duplicate world number one accused a former deputy prime minister of rape in a message – immediately censored – published on the Chinese social network Weibo, before disappearing for nearly three weeks.
Meanwhile, the 35-year-old has reappeared in a restaurant in Beijing, during a tennis tournament in the Chinese capital and in a video call with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), without convincing the WTA. The association is the first sports organization to oppose China head-on, when most of them avoid offending the world’s second economic power. Starting with the IOC, which is increasing its balancing act within two months of the Beijing Winter Games (February 4 to 20).
Twenty Million Practitioners in China
The WTA’s action is far from being a symbolic gesture. Before the pandemic, it is estimated that half of its income came from China. Nine tournaments on the calendar were held there each year, for a total endowment of $ 30.4 million (approximately € 27 million). Since taking office in 2015, Steve Simon has embodied this strategic shift in Chinese territory to deploy there.
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