"This comes down to finances": Stubbs not surprised at WTA's U-turn surrounding China

Former player Rennae Stubbs was not surprised that the WTA made a U-turn regarding China despite the country not following through on what the organisation demanded from them.

Stubbs has been in tennis all her life and knows how the sport operates both on the court and off the court. The WTA returning to China didn't surprise her at all as it was expected despite the country not fulfilling the requests of the WTA in regard to a full investigation of the allegations made by Peng Shuai.

Speaking on CNN, Stubbs said:

“This comes down to finances. That's what it comes down to. I think that the WTA will probably look back on this in some respects and you have to be proud of them for the stance that they took originally. But I think a little bit of lack of strategy in the understanding of ‘what, if you don't get what you want, is this where we're going to be?’ And this is exactly where they've got to, because to think that they could strong-arm a country like China into doing what they wanted to do was a rather large stretch, putting it mildly. So, I think this comes down to finances, and that's why they're going back.”

She also spoke about the WTA's initial response:

“Only history will answer those questions, won't they really? But we're in the same exact situation we really were a couple of years ago. I mean the word is that friends or acquaintances of her's [Peng Shuai's] are saying that she's doing okay in Beijing. But really we haven't verified it one-on-one with her. Steve Simon or anyone from the WTA has actually not spoken to Peng Shuai. So we really don't know how she is.”