Chinese fans unleashed their enthusiasm over an American tennis player Tuesday night, when Peng Shuai drew applause and cheers at the Shanghai International Classic just hours after her controversial loss to home rival Shuai Zhang.
Fans who didn’t get face time with Zhang leaped at the chance to comment on Peng in microblog posts, before social media sites were subject to government censors.
“Where is **??!” one fan tweeted.
The scandal began after Zhang defeated Peng in the opening round in a tiebreak at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. No explanation from tournament officials was offered for Zhang’s 7-7, 7-6, 6-3 victory over Peng, who came into the match with a 14-4 record.
The loss marked the first time since October 2014 that Zhang defeated an Asian woman in singles play in the WTA Championship.
A Twitter account with the name #骒朋毄我天, or “Chinese fans greet Peng Zhu,” took up the causes of Peng and the Metropolitan Sunbelt Tennis Association, or MSI.
“At first I thought, we cannot comment in Chinese,” the account said. “But then we want to complain about our tragedy.”
Peng is ranked 39th in the world and Zhang 38th. Each has one career singles title, Zhang’s coming in 2014 at Shenzhen.
The Players’ Tribune, which praised Zhang for rallying to win the match, deleted the article on Tuesday after the account was deleted and the account tweeted a message reading, “We apologize for any inconvenience” to the nearly 50,000 followers it had accumulated before it was taken down.
The Players’ Tribune was created by musician St. Vincent in 2015 and covers the lives of athletes from a variety of sports. The group, which was founded by journalist Tim Ferris, took to Twitter Tuesday to issue an apology, writing, “We believe we’ve done nothing but support [Peng] — whether fans were supposed to or not.”
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