Peng Shuai denied ever accusing anyone of sexually assaulting her, assuring that she was always in her Beijing home without her movements being restricted.
The Chinese tennis player first addressed the issue in person since she disappeared from public view in early November after a post on her verified Weibo account accused former Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli of sexual abuse.
Peng spoke in a brief interview yesterday with the Singapore-language Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao at an International Cross-Country Skiing Federation event in Shanghai.