“All I can do is think about her and hope she’s doing well,” said Coco Gauff, an 18-year-old American entered in singles and doubles in Fort Worth. “We were told she is, but you never know.”
Shenzhen, China, was supposed to hold the WTA Finals through 2030, but the pandemic scrapped those plans in 2020 and 2021. Simon does not know what will happen in 2023, promising a decision “no later than the end of the first quarter of next year.”
“We hope that that’s where we’re going to be,” he said, “but, obviously, we have some issues to resolve.”
He named two: Peng’s situation and lingering coronavirus restrictions.
“We do need to resolve Peng. … We’re comfortable that she’s safe, and we know she’s in Beijing, which is great. We want that. But we haven’t received the assurances that we want with respect to the investigation that we requested,” Simon said. “What’s the real story? That’s all we’ve asked for. What’s the story? She obviously had great courage to come forward with what she said. The principles that are involved are right in line with what we stand for as an organization. And what we’ve asked for is an investigation to understand what occurred, what didn’t occur, and then address it appropriately.”
The placement of the WTA Finals in Fort Worth wasn’t announced until September — the scheduling that
placed it right before the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Scotland next week drew some criticism — and there were thousands of empty seats during the first two days of competition.
Simon called it “a very last-minute destination” and referred to the venue as “probably a little big for us, but a beautiful arena.”
Even No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek made note of that, telling the crowd after her victory Tuesday night: “Hopefully we’re going to see a full house soon.”
HALEP’S SUSPENSIONSimon said he’s spoken with Simona Halep, the two-time Grand Slam champion and former top-ranked player who was provisionally suspended 1 1/2 weeks ago after testing positive for a banned substance at the U.S. Open in August.