Originally Posted by Brisbane Times

Dubai, United Arab Emirates - The top official of women's tennis reprimanded the United Arab Emirates on Sunday for blocking an Israeli player from a premier Dubai tournament, calling the decision to deny her a visa "regrettable".

But the absence of Shahar Peer could extend beyond the matches under way. The WTA Tour is planning to review its future in Dubai, and the country - which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel - could face possible blows to its ambitions of becoming an international hub for big-ticket sports.

"Ms Peer has earned the right to play in the tournament and it's regrettable that the UAE is denying her this right," WTA Tour chief executive Larry Scott said after the UAE's last-minute decision to reject the visa.

Scott said the tour was "deeply disappointed" by the decision to keep Peer, ranked 48th, from the Dubai Tennis Championships, a joint ATP and WTA event, which includes all the top-10 women's players.

"All the players support Shahar. We are all athletes and we stand for tennis," said Venus Williams. "The players have to be unified and support the Tour whichever direction they take on the issue."

Reigning French Open champion Ana Ivanovic said: "I really don't like sports to be mixed with politics."

Originally Posted by New York Times

The Tennis Channel will not televise the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships this week to protest the United Arab Emirates’ refusal to grant an entry visa to the Israeli player Shahar Peer. Peer was scheduled to play Anna Chakvetadze in the first round.

This is an easy decision to come by, based on what is right and wrong,” Ken Solomon, the chairman and chief executive of the network, said Monday from Utah.

“Sports are about merit, absent of background, class, race, creed, color or religion. They are simply about talent. This is a classic case, not about what country did what to another country. If the state of Israel were barring a citizen of an Arab nation, we would have made the same