AKA William

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Tennis is slowly righting the ship. Last week, Israeli player Shahar Peer was refused entry into the Dubai tournament because she is Israeli. The initial reaction to the refusal was underwhelming, both by the tennis powers that be and the tennis players. But the past few days has seen a flurry of crisis management efforts.

Andy Roddick, who won the Dubai tournament last year, pulled out of this year’s Dubai event (the men play the week after the women), saying, “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.”

And Venus Williams, who won the Dubai tournament this weekend, spoke out at the awards ceremony and in the Q & A afterward, “I am not here to rock any boat or upset people, I am just here to do things that are right,” Williams said. “And I think right things are already happening next week and right things will happen next year . . . . . . My dad grew up in an area where if you spoke too much, it was your life. So I felt I had a small opportunity to say something where everyone will listen.”

The WTA, finally, fined the Dubai Tennis Championships organizers a record $300,000. The WTA also took steps to compensate Peer and ensure she and other Israeli players won’t be shut out of future tournaments in the federation. “I think what we hope with this decision is that we’re sending a very clear message that we’re not going to tolerate discrimination of any kind,” tour CEO Larry Scott told The Associated Press. “We wanted to send a clear signal that this is the most egregious action the world of tennis has seen in recent history. And we felt that it should be at least double what the previous highest penalty was.”

Male Israeli player Andy Ram was granted a visa Thursday for the upcoming men’s tournament in Dubai. On Saturday, organizers said Ram would have the security needed to play, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert encouraged Ram to boycott the Dubai tournament.