Venus and Serena Withdraw From Dubai Duty Free Open

Hat tip to On The Baseline for the information that Venus and Serena have withdrawn from the Dubai Duty Free Open set to start February 20. We can hope it's a protest over the United Arab Emirates' shockingly anti-gay human rights record, but it's more likely the two are still injured. Serena's ranking is now in the 40s and if she doesn't play in Miami's NASDAQ-100 Open March 22-April 2 (everyone knows that neither she nor her sister will play in the Pacific Life Open March 6-19!) she will probably fall out of the WTA Tour Top 100 by the end of March. Then she'll start meeting Top 10 players in the first and second rounds of the Slams. Venus has a lot of points to defend during the clay court season, so her ranking would not fall precipitously until about May.

Meanwhile openly lesbian player Amélie Mauresmo is entered to play in the Dubai Duty Free Open in the openly homophobic Arabic country, although today she is facing Kim Clijsters in the Proximus Diamond Games Final.

UPDATE: Mauresmo has defeated Clijsters 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to defend her title. She now has a chance to win the million dollar, diamond-encrusted racket if she wins the Proximus Diamond Games in either 2007 or 2008. Clijsters bettered her quarterfinal performance from last year so she increases her lead to be #1 on the WTA Tour.