Dubai, UAE - Dubai officials will make an official protest to the WTA after being slapped with a 300,000-dollar fine for the UAE visa exclusion of Israeli Shahar Peer at the Barclays Championships this month.

Owner Dubai Duty Free is also concerned over an unprecedented requirement that the event lay down a 2-million-dollar bond to make sure that the visa problem is not repeated in 2010.

Dubai, UAE  - Israeli Shahar Peer lost her chance to make a political point as the Dubai government denied her a visa to play in the Barclays Championships starting on Sunday.

The 21-year-old ranked 48th, was to have travelled to the Gulf after a semi-final at the weekend in Pattaya, Thailand, and had been drawn to face 15th-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze.

But tensions in the Middle East after Israeli's bombing campaign last month of Palestinians in the region ended any hope of a former Israeli soldier being admitted to the moderate Arab emirate.

Wellington  -