WTA threatens to pull out of China

The head of the Women's Tennis Association says that he is willing to pull tournaments out of China if tennis star Peng Shuai remains unaccounted for and her sexual assault allegations not investigated.

Peng, a former Wimbledon and French Open doubles champion, alleged on Chinese social media earlier this month that former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli had "forced" her into sex during a long-term on-off relationship.

The claims were quickly scrubbed from the Twitter-like Weibo platform and the 35-year-old has not been seen since, drawing mounting concern over her wellbeing. Since then the WTA, the top world body for women's tennis, has called for proof that she is safe and a growing number of tennis stars have been drawing attention to Peng's case, including Naomi Osaka, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams.

WTA boss Steve Simon told CNN that he is willing to lose hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of business in the lucrative China market to ensure Peng's safety.

"We're definitely willing to pull our business and deal with all the complications that come with it," Simon said.