Tennis Australia is hopeful for an easy and stress-free
Australian Open but that might not happen this year as activists vow to make things difficult for the organizers in relation to
Peng Shuai.
The protestors created a lot of trouble for the event last year when they protested in various ways during the event. Tennis Australia has commercial links to China and they don't allow any signs or t-shirts alluding to the situation. Peng was presumed missing for a while after she accused a high-ranking government official of sexual assault but popped up safe not long after that.
She's still not been able to leave the country despite her safety being checked upon by various international organizations regularly. She's walked back the accusations since then claiming it was a misunderstanding causing more people to suspect that she's not as safe as reports make it out to be.
Lead activist Drew Pavlou spoke to the Guardian and confirmed they will continue their activism:
"Unfortunately for them, they are going to have these political problems on their hands for the next few years. We are just not going to allow that tension and that contradiction to go unnoticed and we are going to make trouble for Tennis Australia."
The policy of removing anything related to Peng from stands at the Australian Open was called pathetic by Navratilova last year.