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Chinese tennis player fights for freedom

China's Shuai Peng makes a backhand return during her first-round match against Ana Ivanovic of Serbia-Montenegro at the Sydney International Tennis tournament on Jan. 8. PHOTO: AP

Peng Shuai wants to wrest control of her career from China's communist sports bureaucracy, but the official tennis association says it has a compromise plan to keep her on the national team.

Peng, whose world ranking of 31 last year was the highest ever for a Chinese player, wants final say over her training regime and tournament schedule, as well as the splitting of prize money, a report said yesterday.

"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, was quoted as saying in the state-run newspaper Shanghai Daily.

Like virtually all Chinese athletes, 20-year-old Peng grew up in a state sports system that grooms players from childhood at no cost, but regards them as government servants with little say over their careers.

Tennis officials originally labeled Peng's demands as selfish, but now appear to be backing down.

The Chengdu Commercial Times cited unnamed 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 own training and competition schedule.

Peng would pay her expenses, while splitting some prize money with the association, the report said.

Peng, in training in the eastern city of Tianjin outside Beijing, could not be reached for comment.

However, Tang Jiaying, the vice director of the 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 in a brief telephone interview.

"We don't want too much exposure ... this does no good to Peng Shuai or to the associations," Tang added.
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