This is a follow up to the two previous posts I did. The first post dealt with the banning of Israeli player Shahar Peer from the Barclays Dubai tennis championship. The second post dealt with the granting of a Visa for men’s doubles player Andy Ram, an Israeli, to play in the Dubai Tennis Championship.
Ram has said that from the time of his arrival at the airport in Dubai he was treated with both respect and kindness. He 
was assigned two bodyguards who accompanied him everywhere, including onto the court for his much anticipated and historic match. The minor court where the match occurred was secured first with bomb sniffing dogs and spectators were required to pass through metal detectors and leave all possessions at the gate. As an added precaution, the chair umpire did not announce the nationalities of any of the four players as they took the court.
The match saw Ram and his doubles partner, Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe take on Marat Safin of Russia and David Ferrer of Spain; Ram’s regular partner, Jonathan Erlich of Israel was out with an injury. Ram and Ullyett dropped the first set but rallied to win the second. The third and final set saw Safin and Ferrer clinch a first round victory. The final score was Safin/Ferrer win 6-3, 2-6, 10-8.
It is true that dual citizenship Israeli players have played in the UAE before by using the passport of their other country of citizenship, this is the first time an Israeli has played as an Israeli in the UAE. One of the major things that can be taken away from this historic appearance is that sports won the day. The best athlete, regardless of their religion, race, or nationality was what was important. Politics and old hatreds had reared their ugly head a week before but was rebuffed and not allowed to stand unchallenged.
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I wanted to say thank you for being one of my top droppers in February! I don’t have enough EC credits or anything to give out as gifts like on some blogs, but I have added your 125 x 125 ad to my blog and it will run continuously until the end of March.
Thank you!
VaBookworms last blog post..February Top Droppers!