The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is talking tough after Dubai refused an entry visa to Israeli Shahar Peer, a top-50 player on the women’s circuit who was slated to compete in this year’s Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships.
At least when it comes to next year’s tournament.
This year, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour caved, deciding to go through with the tournament despite the 11th hour move to block Peer’s participation. According to the New York Times, the tour’s chairman and chief executive, Larry Scott, said Peer and her family were reticent to call for the cancellation of the tournament, since they didn’t want the rest of the players to lose out.
We’ll leave it to readers to decide if Scott and the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour deserve criticism.
But if you’re looking to spend a few bucks to reward courageous behavior… consider subscribing to the Tennis Channel, which the Times reports has dropped plans to broadcast the tournament:
“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 decision.”
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