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Shahar Peer's magical run in Dubai came to an end on Friday with Venus Williams prevailing in their semi-final encounter by a score of 6-1, 6-4 on a remote outer court at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. Williams attained her third career victory over Peer in as many attempts. Despite the loss, Peer's results this past week have become one of the feel-good stories of the 2010 professional tennis season.
After being banned from entering the United Arab Emirates a year ago, Peer has demonstrated great courage in showing up to compete and has made the most of her first trip to the country by advancing to the semi-finals. Along the way she has defeated some serious competition in the form of 13th seeded Yanina Wickmayer, 2009 finalist Virginie Razzano, top seeded Caroline Wozniacki and 8th seeded and Australian Open semi-finalist Li Na. Peer has certainly been making up for lost time hasn't she?
The road to the semi-finals has not been an easy one on and off the court. Aside from the tough opponents she has faced across the net, Peer has also faced much adversity and restrictions away from competition. This cinderella story is not without its less than ideal circumstances.
The world's 22nd ranked player has received no scheduling accommodations from the tournament, as each one of her matches have been played at 11:00am local time, despite the fact that often she has played in the doubles competition as well the day before. This is the first time-slot on the schedule and is played during the hottest period of the day as well.
Peer has only been allowed at the tournament venue to practice or play her matches - no viewing other matches or fraternizing with other players. In fact, fraternizing with her fellow competitors is next to impossible since the Israeli has not been allowed to use the players locker room. Instead, she has been secluded in her own separate change room the entire week.
That isn't the only area where Peer has been segregated from others. She is staying at her own hotel and apparently has an entire floor to herself due to "security concerns." Even her own coach is staying elsewhere. Peer has been forced to remain at the hotel at all times when she is not at the tournament site. She is not allowed out to see any of the city at any time. She has basically been treated like a prisoner during the times of the Roman Empire and only allowed out when it is her time to fight in front of the crowd. At least the gladiators were allowed to fight in the coliseum.
In Peer's case, she has been confined to a much smaller outdoor court for every match she has played. Even when facing off against top seeded Caroline Wozniacki she was confined to this court and this routine continued on Friday in her match against Williams. Would tournament organizers have continued this ridiculous practice if she had made it to the finals? While this tactic has likely worked to Peer's favor, (as she has developed a comfort level with the court no-doubt) it also seems absurd to force two deserving semi-finalists to play in such a distant and obscure setting. And how about the limitations this places on tennis fans wanting to watch? How many spectators were prevented from catching this marquee match?
While I admire Shahar for deciding to make the difficult decision to show up in Dubai after the way she was discriminated against a year ago, I can't imagine how she has managed to endure the despicable manner in which she has been treated while in Dubai. I have not heard anything about the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour standing up for Peer in the face of such bigotry, nor do I expect that we will. A year ago they meekly fined the tournament $300,000 and threatened to pull the plug on the event if any player was refused entry in 2010. They lacked the ability to take a true stand then and it seems they are repeating the same cowardly mistakes again now.
If a WTA player is going to be admitted into a tournament, then she should be allowed to be present with the same privileges and freedoms as everyone else. No isolation treatment and no segregation from her fellow players. Security measures can be enacted while still allowing the player a measure of respect. This is the Twenty-first century and all athletes on tour deserve better than this from their employer and from the tournaments that they chose to play in. If Dubai cannot put aside its blatantly racist attitudes then it is not worthy of hosting an event like this in the future. Time to move on and find another platform to showcase the best female tennis players the world has to offer - without exception.
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