"Zero tolerance" for any incidents of racial prejudice and discrimination, WTA responds to Zhang Shuai's incident by thoroughly investigating the Budapest | WTA | incident
On July 20th, Beijing time, regarding Zhang Shuai's unfair treatment incident at the WTA Budapest station, the official WTA issued a statement, which is currently under review and responding.
In the first round of the women's singles at the WTA250 Budapest station, the second seed Zhang Shuai faced off against the Hungarian native player Tot, who was holding a wild card. In the 11th inning of the first set of the game, Zhang Shuai served. At 15-15 o'clock, Zhang Shuai's return ball was clearly an out of bounds ball, but it was deemed out of bounds by the referee.
After a long unsuccessful argument with Zhang Shuai, he called for the competition director, but the latter did not look at the ball marks, only communicated with the referee, and later refused Zhang Shuai's request. At the same time, the opponent Tote even wiped off his shoe prints with his foot, and the audience on site booed Zhang Shuai in bursts. In the end, Zhang Shuai, whose emotions were affected, missed the game point, conceded three goals in a row, and was broken by the opponent. Zhang Shuai, who was crying out of anger, shook hands with the referee and opponents in a friendly manner and withdrew from the game, expressing his dissatisfaction to the on-site audience.
Afterwards, Zhang Shuai posted on Weibo stating that "being a player is really difficult" and "being bullied can only be tolerated.". At the same time, a group of tennis stars including Azarenka, Stephens, Sacari, Garcia, Meladnovic, Puig, Tomjanovic, Saville, Vikki, Perez, Ura, Bonaventur, as well as men's tennis players Shapovalov, Rubin, and others, all spoke out in support of Zhang Shuai's decision to withdraw from the game. However, the official statement of the Budapest tournament and Toth's own statement are greatly unsatisfactory.
In response, the WTA official also issued a statement: "WTA firmly tolerates any form of racial prejudice and discrimination under any circumstances. Regarding the unfortunate incident that occurred earlier in the Budapest race and subsequent related remarks, WTA is currently reviewing and will respond."
