The Tennis Channel will not televise the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships this week to protest the United Arab Emirates’ refusal to grant an entry visa to Israeli player Shachar Peer.

“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, told the New York Times.

“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.”

The $2 million tournament is a part of the Sony Ericsson World Tennis Association (WTA) Tour and features 9 of the world’s top 10 women players. Peer is ranked No. 48.

The event is part of a package of rights to several international tournaments which the Tennis Channel acquired from the WTA.

'It's easier for us'

Solomon said he began thinking Sunday about canceling the network’s coverage of the tournament. He spoke to his staff and to board members and heard no significant dissent before calling Larry Scott, the chairman and chief executive of the WTA Tour. Solomon added that he would consider carrying the tournament next year if Peer were granted a visa.

The WTA’s Scott told the New York Times that he had not expected the network’s cancellation, but that he understood it. “I’m sorry it was in the position of having to make the decision,” he said. “We’ve got some of the same feelings but many more complications.”

Solomon was not critical of the WTA’s decision to allow the tournament to take place.

“It’s easier for us to pull the plug,” he said. “It’s different for Larry and the WTA, who were more or less strung along and led to believe she would get the visa. His players were on the ground, and everything was in motion. The rug was pulled out from under their feet.”

He added, “The entire field of competitors is diminished by this happening. It hurts them all. Shahar earned the right to be in the tournament. She’s been on a roll and could have won it. It’s just hard to imagine this happening in this day and age.”

'A higher duty'

Scott said that United Arab Emirates officials did not tell him why Peer was denied the visa, but that he believed Israel’s incursion into Gaza was a crucial element of the decision. Still, he said, he knew for about a year that Peer might have trouble entering Dubai.

Solomon said that his channel had a “higher duty” to refuse to carry the Dubai event.

“Tennis in many ways has been at the forefront of sport, with people breaking down barriers like Althea Gibson, Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King,” he said. “It’s harder for the Tennis Channel to turn the other cheek and not do the right thing.”

Scott said Monday that barring Peer threatens the principle that sports and politics should not mix.

Speaking by telephone to The Associated Press, he said the WTA will consider what ``types of sanctions are going to be deemed to be appropriate in light of what has happened, including whether or not the tournament has a slot on the calendar next year.''

Asked if there is a risk that the tournament could be dropped if this matter is not set right, Scott replied, "You could say that, yes."

Peer, ranked 45th, had qualified and was already placed in the woman's draw. She was scheduled to play Monday against 15th-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze in the first round.

Organizers gave the 21-year-old player no reason for the rejection, but Scott said that ``it can really only be related to her nationality and political and security-related issues."

Last month, Peer faced a noisy protest in Auckland, New Zealand over Israel's Gaza counterterroist campaign.

Shlomi Peer, the player's brother, said that this was the first time his sister's Israeli nationality has ever prevented her from playing professionally. Last year, she played in Doha, Qatar. At the time, the Gulf Arab country had low-level ties with Israel. Peer had hoped the precedent would allow her to play again this year.

In 2006, she and her doubles partner, Sania Mirza of India, were forced to split because of objections from Indian Muslims.