Protester Removed From Wimbledon After Shouting "Where Is Peng Shuai?"
A protester at the Wimbledon men's singles final was removed from the court after questioning the whereabouts of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai.
There was certainly a lot going on at Centre Court of Wimbledon on Sunday afternoon, as two of the sports most controversial stars went head-to-head in the men's final.
Nick Kyrgios was in typically boisterous form, even asking for one woman to be removed from the court after having "700 drinks," as he took on Novak Djokovic in his first singles grand slam final.
Advert
The Australian won the first set but was pegged back by 20 time slam winner Djokovic in the second, setting up an intriguing third set of the match.
However, during the third stanza, both men were left frustrated after shouting from the crowd in the middle of the point, with one fan removed.
That fan had shouted "Where is Peng Shuai?" as the two men exchanged shots, leading to Kyrgios to stand frustrated with hands on hip, admittedly it doesn't take too much to do that.
Shuai is a Chinese women's tennis player but she hasn't been seen on the WTA circuit all year, following her disappearance at the end of last year.
In November 2021, the 36-year-old worried people as she 'vanished' after accusing Beijing's former vice premier, Zhang Gaoli, of sexual abuse.
The 2014 French Open doubles champion's post on social media was initially censored before being deleted and she was then not seen for several weeks.
A few weeks later, the WTA received an email from the tennis star claiming that she wasn't missing, although fans were not buying that it actually came from her.
Former #Wimbledon champion Peng Shuai should be competing here today. Instead, we just have her name on a board.
— Free Tibet (@freetibetorg) July 4, 2022
We should be able to speak freely about her and ask a simple question: #WhereIsPengShuai? pic.twitter.com/CqmMgHZwax
In December last year, the association for the women's game pulled out of around $1 billion worth of matches in China for the year.
With Shuai having not been seen on tour since, fans are still questioning exactly where she's been over the past eight months, hence the protesting.
Earlier in the week at the All England lawn tennis club, fans in t-shirts posing the question claimed they were harassed by security and asked to leave.
Nine time Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova criticised the decision to silence the protesters.
Ryan Sidle