In September, Micky Lawler, the president of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) boasted about the tour’s heavy investment in the Chinese market. Among the highlights: brokering a $1 billion deal in 2018 to move its prestigious annual Finals to Shenzhen, build a 12,000-seater stadium for the competition and double its prize money.
“China represents a big opportunity for the WTA and the choice allowed us to make big steps forwards,” Lawler said in an interview with France's Tennis Magazine. “Please name me one person who would have said no to China?”
Just three months later, after an international scandal blew up around the apparent disappearance of former world No. 1 Chinese doubles player Peng Shuai, the WTA has done just that. On Wednesday, it suspended all its tournaments in China — a move that could have implications well beyond the sporting world.
“If the WTA does persist and show that the costs it will pay are manageable and may even be
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