Spanish tennis player Garbine Muguruza, world No.3, said on Saturday that the "
real truth
" about what happened to China's Peng Shuai may never be known, after the latter accused a senior politician of her country of sexual assault.
"
Are we going to know anything about this?" I don't know, I think it's a complicated country to run,
” Muguruza told reporters of Peng and China, which will host the Winter Olympics next month in Beijing.
“
It's not progressing much, I have the impression.
And yet it's been going on for months and months
,” said the Spaniard, winner of two Grand Slam tournaments, before the start of the Australian Open on Monday, where Peng will be absent.
“
It looked for a moment that we were going to find out what happened, but no.
I think it is going to be very difficult to know the +true+ truth and for it to be able to speak freely
,” Muguruza continued.
Last November, in a message published on the Chinese social network Weibo, which had quickly disappeared, Peng Shuai, former champion of Wimbledon and Roland-Garros in doubles, had described a sincere but upset romantic relationship with the former vice-Premier Chinese Minister Zhang Gaoli.
The player mentioned in particular a " forced
" sexual relationship
with Mr. Zhang, married and 40 years her senior, before and after he held high office at the top of the communist regime.
The message had been promptly erased by Chinese censorship and the former world No.1 in doubles had not appeared in public for several weeks, arousing the turmoil of the sports world, the UN and several countries including the United States and France.
After making global headlines for weeks, the outcry over his fate died down and the tennis world's attention turned to Novak Djokovic and his Australian visa issues.
In early December, the WTA canceled all of its tournaments in China and called for a transparent investigation into the player's accusations.
"
The WTA did well, at least that's my feeling
," added the Spaniard.
"
I think they showed a lot of courage and character in making these strong decisions
."
The world No.1, Australian Ashleigh Barty, said for her part on behalf of the players and the WTA that “
our message has not changed
”.
"
We hope she's okay, we really hope she's okay, and see her back here soon
," she said.