WTA Fines Dubai Championships Organizers

The WTA has fined Dubai Championships organizers a record-breaking $300,000 on Friday after they denied Israeli player Shahar Peer a visa.

They did compensate Peer and have ensured that her and other Israeli players will not be shut out of any future tournaments in the federation. Their reasoning behind this whole ordeal was the fear that because of the anger against Israel’s recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip, riots would happen during her match.

Part of the $300,000 will go to Peer and her doubles partner Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany. This is to make up for the $2 million dollar prize money that they could have won.

Dubai organizers have also said that Israeli players will get visas at least eight week in advance in order to remain on the 2010 tour schedule.

In other Dubai news, Andy Roddick has pulled out of the tournament and said that he would not defend his title there.

"I really didn’t agree with what went on over there. I don’t know if it’s the best thing to mix politics and sports, and that was probably a big part of it,” Roddick said.

Read the rest below.

He went on to say, "It’s just disappointing that reflects on a tournament that probably didn’t have much to do with the decision. Nevertheless, I just don’t feel like there’s a need for that in a sporting event. I don’t think you make political statements through sports.”

I completely agree. We have to make politics and sports separate. There will always be tension in our world between different countries, but sports is a place where everyone should be able to come together and put out differences aside. This is one reason why I love the Olympics so much. To see so many countries under one roof just amazes me. I hope the world of tennis has learned from this whole Dubai ordeal.

Source: NBC Sports

Image Credit: Newscom