Venus salutes Israeli after winning Dubai Open

Per BBC, after winning the Dubai Open on Saturday in the United Arab Emirates, Venus Williams made special mention of Israeli player Shahar Peer, stating it was "a shame one of our players couldn't be here." Peer's visa was denied in a political controversy, as previously reported by Breaking Tweets.

Twitter users applauded Venus for the reference.

@floatr (Dubai, UAE): Venus mentions Israeli player's absense at Dubai Open. Respect and congrats!



@emandelbaum (New York): Venus Williams hails 'brave' Peer after winning UAE tourney http://bit.ly/EEZW4



News also broke Saturday that another tennis star Andy Roddick is making a statement as a result of the Peer situation. He said he will boycott the Dubai Open men's tournament next week, according to AFP.

Tweets were quick to praise Roddick.

@brianoflondon (Tel Aviv, Israel): Andy Roddick does the right thing: pulls out of Dubai citing treatment of Shahar Peer. Bravo! http://bit.ly/JBnmF



@jmuller (San Jose, Calif.): congrats to andy roddick for refusing to play in Dubai in support of Shahar Peer



@jamesbregenzer (Chicago, Ill.): Sweet: Andy Roddick, WTA come down hard on Dubai for banning Israeli player http://is.gd/koQS #icot #tcot


@rebutantiIsrael: Special congratulations to Andy Roddick for publicly stating that he will not play in Dubai to protest discrimination against Shahar.


As of this post, no negative tweets could be found for either Venus' words or Roddick's pullout.

Venus salutes Israeli after winning Dubai Open