Tennis / UAE tournament fined record $300,000 for Israeli female player, Shahar Peer exclusion
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The Dubai Championships was fined a record $300,000 by the Women’s Tennis Association on Friday after top Israeli player Shahar Peer was barred from taking part in this week’s event. The tennis governing body said in a statement the fine was the largest levied against a WTA Tour member, and that Peer would be awarded $44,250 - the average prize money she earned per tournament in 2008. Peer’s doubles partner, Germany’s Anna Lena Groenefeld, was awarded $7,950 because she could not compete in Dubai as a result of Peer’s exclusion.[…]
[…] The WTA was determined to hand out stiff sanctions to the Dubai tournament, despite being assured that all Israeli athletes would now be granted a “special permit” by the UAE government to enter the country if they have qualified for a tournament. Peer had to forfeit her place in the lucrative $2 million tournament after the United Arab Emirates, which has no diplomatic ties with Israel and routinely denies entry to its citizens, denied her entry into the country. However, after receiving global condemnation for excluding Peer, the UAE was forced on Thursday to change its policy of barring Israeli athletes from competing in the Gulf state. “The actions taken today are intended to redress the wrongs suffered by Shahar Peer, who was victimized by an unjust policy of discrimination by the UAE,” said WTA chief Larry Scott. “These actions are also intended to send a clear message that our Tour will not tolerate discrimination of any kind, and that we will never allow this situation to happen again in the UAE or elsewhere.” “The fact they fixed their policy going forward doesn’t make okay what happened last week,” Scott added.
The WTA said the compensation being paid to Peer and Groenefeld would come from the fine levied against the tournament, with the balance “donated to a charity or charities, to be determined by the Tour in consultation with Ms. Peer.” Peer will be allocated 130 ranking points, which the WTA said was equal to the total she earned during[…]