Roddick's Politics

My thanks to BGSU's Ben Phillips for brining this to my attention.

Last week I wrote about the decision made by officials of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships to ban Israel's Shahar Peer from the competition. While the women competed last week, the men's tournament is taking place right now. Althought tournament officials did not repeat their poor judgment--granting doubles player Andy Ram a special visa--at least one prominent player has nevertheless refused to play.


America's most successful and media-friendly male player of the past decade has been Andy Roddick. A former U.S. Open champion and world number one, Roddick retains a good deal of influence even as he has been over-shadowed in recent years by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. He's also pretty bright, as his always entertaining press conferences demonstrate.

In response to the Peer decision, Roddick said:

"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 [my decision]."


Roddick is the defending champion of this tournament, and is coming off a tournament victory last week in Memphis. He remains one of the most popular and marketable players on the tour. Thus, this is no small matter in the tennis community.

What is especially impressive is that Roddick has done what none of the women thought to do last week: refuse to play in a tournament that practices blatant discrimination. That refusal was particularly striking from the most prominent women on tour, the Williams sisters. After winning, Venus Williams stated:

"The big picture is that Shahar Peer didn't get a chance to play, but making an immediate decision we also have to look at sponsors, fans and everyone who has invested a lot in the tournament."

What, you don't think if the Williams sisters had organized a boycott--say, encouraging all of the top women to join them--that sponsors and media wouldn't have applied enough pressure to allow Peer to play? This was a missed opportunity. Meanwhile, ESPN's Jemele Hill takes both Venus and Serena to task for not recognizing that the discrimination against Peer is a variation of the racial discrimination the Williams' have experienced in the U.S. Hill perhaps singles out Venus and Serena too much, but the larger point is that the players have a lot of influence. Sometimes it's appropriate to exercise that influence.

Roddick's decision can't undo the damage done last week. But it's nevertheless encouraging to see an athlete who has nothing to gain personally recognize that an injustice has occurred. Now, the biggest injustice remaining is that the American sports media has given this story virtually no coverage.