The Australian Open risks a backlash from Chinese brands and broadcasters on the scale of what was meted out to the NBA in 2019, following Tennis Australia’s decision to allow spectators at the grand slam to wear “Where is Peng Shuai?” T-shirts.

That is the view of Beijing-based sports industry analyst and author of Sporting Superpower, Mark Dreyer, who says it can be “very, very hard to separate politics from business and from sport” in China.