Tennis player Peng Shuai turned around: I never said I was raped. It was a misunderstanding

Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai said on her social media in November that she was sexually abused by former Vice Minister Zhang Gaoli, then disappeared on December 2. But now she has turned around and claims it was all a misunderstanding.

After Shuai disappeared, there was a huge uproar in the tennis world. The social media hashtag #whereispengshuai, meaning “Where is Peng Shuai?”, has gone viral. Famous tennis players and other world celebrities have spoken out publicly.

After a few weeks, the 36-year-old tennis player appeared among the people, and in early February she even gave her first interview to Western media, specifically to the daily L’Equipe. But her statement is completely different from what fans expected.

“I never said I was raped, ” Peng told the newspaper. ” Why did you bring me to your house and force me to have an affair with you? ”

“This post caused a huge misunderstanding from the outside world. I hope the meaning of this post will no longer be distorted. I also hope that no more hype will be added around it,” the former world number one doubles player added.

She also denied that she had been silenced by the Chinese authorities, saying she had not disappeared at all. She assured International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach that she was in no danger.

Any mention of the case has been censored in China and doubts surrounding the whole situation forced the WTA to cancel all tournaments played in China in December.

So can this new version of Shuai be trusted? Figure it out for yourself, but it certainly doesn’t seem very credible.

Source: Marca, L’Equipe