Peng seeks playing independence
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Peng Shuai wants to wrest control of her tennis career
from a sports bureaucracy that grooms players from childhood at no cost but
regards them as government servants.
Peng was ranked 31st last year, the highest ranking ever for a Chinese player,
and has beaten such stars as Kim Clijsters, Anastasia Myskina and Elena
Dementieva.
She wants the final say over her training regimen and tournament schedule and a
split of her prize money, a report said Tuesday.
"We will decide on the season schedule on our own, hire our own coach and pay
for our own expenses," Peng's mother and spokeswoman, Zhang Bing, told the
state-run newspaper Shanghai Daily.
Tennis officials originally labeled 20-year-old Peng's demands as selfish, but
now appear to be backing down. She may be too promising a prospect to alienate.
The newspaper Chengdu Commercial Times cited unidentified tennis officials as
saying that "only a few details" remained to be worked out in a deal that would
keep Peng on the national team, while letting her arrange her training and
schedule.
Peng would pay her expenses, while splitting some prize money with the
association, the report said.
In one sign the rift may be healing, Peng joined other players Monday in
Beijing to apply for U.S. visas to compete at Indian Wells and Miami, the
Chengdu Commercial Times said.
Peng, training in Tianjin outside Beijing, could not be reached for comment.
However, Tang Jiaying, vice director of Tianjin Tennis Association, said Peng
was talking with tennis officials "to solve this problem."
"I can't comment on the exact situation regarding Peng Shuai at present," Tang
said by telephone. "We don't want too much exposure. ... This does no good to
Peng Shuai or to the associations."
Peng isn't the first Chinese athlete to chafe under state control. Wang Zhizhi,
the first Chinese in the NBA, was criticized after he refused to return in the
offseason to play for China. Basketball officials threw him off the national
team and reportedly sought to make him unemployable by refusing to broadcast
games in China featuring any team that hired him.
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