Wta: The tennis boss who placed principle ahead of profit in standing up to China

Guadalajara, Mexico, gave a party for women’s tennis last month, and when it ended, with Garbiñe Muguruza winning the WTA Finals, the season’s last tournament, confetti fell through the air and a mariachi band turned the Akron Tennis Stadium into a fiesta.In the middle of it, Steve Simon, the bespectacled chair and CEO of the WTA Tour, stood quietly and unsmiling in a blue business suit with his hands clasped. He shared the occasional quiet word with Chris Evert and Billie Jean King, or one of the local officials he had helped persuade into holding the event on short notice, after the regular host, Shenzhen, China, pulled out because of the pandemic.Simon had plenty else on his mind. As the tournament and closing celebration unfolded, a geopolitical crisis with women’s tennis at its centre had occupied much of his time and he was leading the tour down an uncertain path. medium88070184On November 2, Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai — in social media posts that were quickly deleted — accused Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier of China, of sexually assaulting her.The Chinese government removed all mentions of Peng’s accusation, and coverage of Peng from news media outside China has been censored. She largely disappeared from public life, and Simon has been unable to communicate with her despite repeated attempts.On December 1, Simon went public with his frustration, demanding that he and the WTA be able to speak with Peng independently and that Chinese officials conduct a transparent investigation into her allegations. If they did not comply, Simon said, the WTA would consider removing its nine tournaments from China, including the Tour Finals, moves that could cost women’s tennis tens and perhaps hundreds, of millions of dollars over the next decade.On December 1, Simon followed through on his threat, announcing that after weeks of failed attempts to communicate with Peng, and no sign of an investigation or evidence that Peng can speak freely, the WTA was immediately suspending all of its tournaments in China. Simon’s stridency, in contrast to other international sports leagues and organizations that do business in China, has turned Simon, a mild-mannered former tournament director who prefers to operate in the background and leave the spotlight to his star players, into the most talked-about leader in sports."With the full support of the WTA Board of Directors, I am announcing the immediate suspension of all WTA tournamen… https://t.co/ukzqgHhdee— wta (@WTA) 1638386086000“This is not where I wanted to end up,” Simon said in an interview on December 1, speaking about the WTA Tour, but also, in a sense, about himself. “I don’t want this to be about me. Nothing prepared me for it, other than just trying to do what is right and communicating that with the players.”Simon’s refusal to accept China’s authoritarian stance on human rights once it directly impacted one of his players stands in stark contrast to several high-profile leaders in sports who have repeatedly bent to the desires of the Chinese, including Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA, and Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee.Simon has been concerned about Peng’s physical safety but also believed, as did the members of his player council and others with whom he regularly communicates in a player chat group, that the silencing of Peng and her sexual assault allegation amounted to a direct attack on the principle of equality upon which the WTA was founded.“It’s now December and we’ve not seen any meaningful progress,” he said on December 1.IOC Statement on the situation of Peng Shuaihttps://t.co/7wDhc0w33f— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) 1638437741000Simon, a 66-year-old Southern California native, played tennis at Long Beach State University and mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 1981 alongside Lea Antonoplis. He has spent his adult life in tennis coaching, running the tennis program for Adidas, and organizing and eventually directing the BNP Paribas Open, a joint men's and women’s event in Indian Wells, California, known as the fifth Grand Slam tournament.All along, Simon was quietly gaining authority within tennis circles, even if few of the players knew him particularly well. He began serving on the board of the WTA in 2004.@WTA Well done. Now all we need is a United response across all organisations. @ITFTennis @atptour— Liam Broady (@Liambroady) 1638386879000In 2009, he worked to get Stacey Allaster, then the president of the WTA, appointed as the next CEO. Allaster said during a rough moment for her candidacy, she privately asked Simon if he might be a better fit to lead the organization.“Without a blink, he turned to me and said, ‘No, we’re going to stay the course,’” Allaster said.Six years later, after Allaster decided to step down, the WTA board unanimously selected Simon to succeed her. He has since cultivated the support of the sport’s biggest stars of the present and past, including Serena Williams and King, founder of the WTA, while maintaining his decades long relationships with the tournament directors who were his initial base of support.“He’s a rarity in sports,” said John Tobias, a prominent tennis agent who represents Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open women’s singles champion. “An executive who is always trying to put the focus on the tour and the players.”Over the past two years, Simon has managed through the sport’s shutdown and declining revenues in its return during the pandemic. The crisis involving Peng is his greatest challenge yet.In February in Australia, Johanna Konta, a recently retired British pro, was asked what she had learned from her time on the WTA Player Council. “Mostly I’ve learned just how hard Steve Simon works,” Konta said.Through it all, Simon has relied on near-constant communication with players and tournament officials, including video calls and digital group chats with select players.Simon explained that he had chosen the word “suspension” to signify his hope that China would eventually accede to the WTA’s demands for Peng to speak freely and for an investigation to take place.He is also hunting for new investors and sponsors who can help replace the prize money and revenue that the tour stands to lose by abandoning the world’s most populous country, a lucrative but complicated market.“I will continue to reach out and use every avenue available to get this to an appropriate resolution,” he said. “If it ends up that not being their preference, then we will not be operating in the region.”Untitled Carousel 87894576