Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai issued a bombshell denial on Sunday, claiming that she never accused a former top official of sexually assaulting her. “I wanted to make this very clear: I have never claimed, or written about anyone having sexually assaulted me,” Peng said in Chinese, in her first on-camera statement on the online firestorm ignited after she wrote her Nov. 2 social media post. Her remarks to Lianhe Zaobao, a Singaporean state-controlled media outlet, were made on the sidelines of a cross-country skiing event in Shanghai she was attending.

Peng also said that the Nov. 2 essay, which accused former vice premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual coercion, was a “private matter.” Regarding her subsequent disappearance from public view for nearly three weeks, Peng said, “There’s been a lot of misunderstanding… There [should be] no distorted interpretation.”

She added that an email she had written to Women’s Tennis Association head Steve Simon last month “entirely on my own volition.” The Nov. 18 letter, which Simon said he had “a hard time believing,” came after the WTA issued a statement threatening to boycott China if Peng did not emerge soon. When Peng was asked on Sunday if she was under surveillance, she replied, “Why would there be people following me?”