Long ago Billie Jean King, the tennis woman who more than any other loves to battle for a cause, nominated Venus Williams as the present day standard-bearer for righteousness in a sport that sometimes gets things horribly wrong.

Williams talked and wrote eloquently on the matter of equal prize money. Coming from the Los Angeles ghetto of Compton, she is well versed with the struggles that face athletes from less privileged backgrounds. In BJK parlance, Venus simply gets it.

However, it seems she is no rebel – at least not in the ongoing situation of the United Arab Emirates Government denying Shahar Peer and quite possibly Andy Ram, her Israeli compatriot, a visa to contest the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. Arguments are raging on the morality of the decision, opinions are widespread. However Venus's voice was one of sensibility and pragmatism when she declared there was not even a likelihood of a boycott among the women's players in protest at the UAE's decision.

"I have to look at the bigger picture," said Venus, who sits on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Players' Council and has talked the situation through with chief executive Larry Scott, who remains in America. "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."

With every diplomatic move that unfolds, and ATP board member Justin Gimelstob (who distinguished himself as a man of discernment and sensibility with his outrageously sexually chauvinistic comments about Anna Kournikova last year) apparently winging his way to Dubai to confront the issues first hand, the looks of concern that come from sponsors Barclays and tournament owners Dubai Duty Free become graver by the hour.

"There are so many other people involved. Sponsors are important to us," Williams said. "We wouldn't be here without sponsors and we can't let them down. Whatever we do, we need to do as a team - players, sponsors, tour and whoever - and not all break off in one direction. We are team players."

Worldwide condemnation of the situation worsened. The Wall Street Journal's European edition has withdrawn its secondary sponsorship of the event in protest and earlier tournament employees were kept busy removing banners and signage from the Aviation Club site. "The Wall Street Journal's editorial philosophy is free markets and free people, and this action runs counter to the Journal's editorial direction," the paper said in a statement.

Then the Tennis Channel, a major cable outlet for the sport on American television, announced it would be cancelling its scheduled coverage of the event this weekend. A statement said: "We honour the role and proud tradition that tennis has always played as a driving force for inclusion both on and off the courts. Preventing an otherwise qualified athlete from competing on the basis of anything other than merit has no place in tennis or any other sport, and has the unfortunate result of undermining the credibility of the very nature of competition itself."

However, there is lucid support for the UAE's decision from within the region. Ali Khalid, managing editor of the publication Seven Days, clearly takes the Arab viewpoint and mirrors the strong feelings emanating from the recent Gaza situation that, according to Tournament Director Salah Tahlak, maintain Peer's presence could have sparked crowd unrest.

"I have nothing against Ms Peer as an individual," Khalid wrote. "But find it the height of insensitivity that she is being portrayed as some kind of victim for being denied the opportunity to knock a few balls around barely weeks after doctors were being denied entry into Gaza to treat dying children. If the UN threatened Israel with expulsion from the Security Council, then I must have missed it.

"Keep politics and sports separate, we're being told. Like any sports fan, and human being, I wish we lived in a world where that is possible, but unfortunately we do not live in a John Lennon song, and the reality is very different to that preached by the officials of organisations such as Fifa and WTA. And it wouldn't be so bad if there weren't so much hypocrisy flying around."