“A protestor has alleged that he was thrown down the stairs of Wimbledon Centre Court after attempting to hold up a placard which asked after the whereabouts of Chinese player #PengShuai.” telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2022/07…
Drew Pavlou went on social media to say that he was the person who caused a brief interruption to the final between Novak Djokovic and Nick Krygrios for holding up a sign which said “Where is Peng Shuai?”.
Pavlou alleged that he was threatened with arrest for holding a placard inside the Wimbledon grounds on Friday and now says that his treatment got physical during the men’s singles final.
It is understood that Wimbledon officials reject the claim that excessive force was used.
An All England Club spokesperson said: “A spectator was removed from Centre Court after disrupting play by shouting, running down the stairs and causing a nuisance to their fellow spectators. The individual was removed by security colleagues and escorted off the grounds.”
Pavlou later told Telegraph Sport: "I was just holding up a sign saying: 'Where is Peng Shuai?' I wanted to do it silently, I didn’t mean to disrupt the match.
As soon as I got the sign up security grabbed me, and they tried to rip the sign out of my hands. So at that point I yelled out 'Where is Peng Shuai'.
“Here’s a testament to why I did it. It’s not my name trending right now on Twitter, it’s Peng Shuai’s, and it’s the first time in months that she is in the news. That’s why I did it.
I feel like the officials and administrators see this as some inconvenient reality because it threatens their massive sponsorship and broadcast deals with China."
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