France's
Alize Cornet said she is still worried about Chinese tennis player
Peng Shuai and that she wants more clarity regarding the former doubles world number one's situation.
Peng's wellbeing became a matter of concern among the global tennis community and rights groups when she appeared to allege that a former Chinese vice premier, Zhang Gaoli, had sexually assaulted her in the past. The Women's Tennis Association suspended tournaments
in China due to concerns over her safety and said her public
appearances did not address or alleviate concerns about her safety.
Peng then said
last month she had never accused anyone of sexually assaulting her, and
that a social media post she had made had been misunderstood. After her 1st round loss to Osaka, Cornet was asked about it and she said:
"I'm still a little bit worried about her. I have to say that this situation still makes me feel uncomfortable, and I don't know how she's doing. I really don't know what to think about it anymore. I don't know where is the truth and where are the lies."
Cornet was one of the first player to show support for Peng under the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai and on that she said:
"I'm
really happy that all these people followed me and the turn it took was
really unexpected, like the reaction of (WTA chief executive) Steve
Simon and everything that followed was really, really huge. I'm
not sure that it changes something (for Peng). It's tough to know what
the effect was on her situation. It's not very clear ... I'm just hoping
for the best and hoping that she's fine. I feel I don't have the power
to do something more."