"Why such a concern?" : Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai book his first interview

She comes out of a heavy silence for the first time by speaking to an independent media.

French moreover.

The Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, 36, who had worried the planet after having disappeared after the publication and then deletion of an accusatory message on social networks at the end of November, gave an interview to the sports daily L'Équipe.

On the occasion of the Winter Olympics which have been held in China since Friday, our colleagues were able to meet the player, by soliciting the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC).

The one who had accused former Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli of having raped her three years ago, before her message was censored 30 minutes later, was however accompanied, for this interview, by the chief of staff of the COC .

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Peng Shuai, who had finally reappeared after several days of disappearance, first wanted to "thank all the ATP and WTA players, all the sportsmen and all the personalities in large numbers who were concerned" about her.

Indeed, many world tennis stars, from Chris Evert to Novak Djokovic and several Western countries, notably France and the United States but also the European Union and the UN, have asked Beijing to shed light on the fate of Peng Shuai.

Since then, his rare speeches seem clearly influenced.

The former doubles winner of Roland-Garros concedes not to understand all this wave of support.

“I didn't think there would be such concern and I would like to know: why such concern?

".

"I never disappeared"

According to Peng Shuai, it was she who deleted his long accusing message from the beginning of November.

“I deleted it (…) Because I wanted to,” she said, laconically and coldly according to our colleagues.

Before pretending that it was misinterpreted.

“This post has given rise to a huge misunderstanding from the outside world.

I hope that the meaning of this post will no longer be distorted.

I never said that anyone had made me suffer any sexual assault, ”she repeats, therefore returning to this famous confession where she precisely recounted a relationship forced by a former senior leader of the country.

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Announcing that she will not resume her career because of the state of her knee but also of the pandemic, the one of which we lost all signs of life for two weeks, ensures that she has "never disappeared, everyone has been able to see me ". "A lot of people, like my friends including from the IOC, sent me messages, and it was quite impossible to reply to so many messages (….) I don't know why the information that I had disappeared has spread, ”she justifies, referring to a dark computer problem.

Asked about possible problems with the Chinese authorities after her accusing message, Peng Shuai presents her vision.

“I would like to say first of all that feelings, sport and politics are three very distinct things.

My sentimental problems, my private life, should not be involved in sports and politics.

But then why such silence?

She explains that she has not received any message.

What seems surprising so much the whole tennis planet and even more is concerned about his case.

“I had only received an e-mail from the psychological unit of the WTA, no colleague contacted me.

Why would I need psychological assistance or that sort of thing?

I didn't know how I should understand it… But if the WTA psychologists couldn't reach me and thought

that I had disappeared, I think it's a bit exaggerated, ”considers the one who came to support the Chinese athletes for these Winter Games.

And who will obviously not have succeeded, during this hour of interview, in dispelling the mystery that hangs over the case that bears his name.