Dubai tournament organizers have scheduled the semifinal between Shahar Peer and defending champion Venus Williams for an outside court because of security concerns surrounding the Israeli's presence.
Peer, who was refused entry to Dubai for last year's event, has played all her previous matches on outer courts under heavy security, but there was speculation that organizers would opt to play the semifinal match on the stadium to satisfy the 5,000 spectators expected to attend tomorrow's play.
The match has instead been scheduled for Court 2, where increased search and surveillance is possible because of the smaller seating capacity.
The other semifinal between Victoria Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska will be played on the main stadium, sanwiched by two doubles matches.
"It's security and police, and they dictate what happens," tournament referee Alan Mills was quoted saying by AFP and theLondon Guardian. "We have asked, if she gets to the final, where are 5,000 people going to sit? That's something obviously they have to get in hand. They haven't indicated yet."
Israel and Dubai do not have diplomatic relations, and tensions are currently running high between the two countries with Israeli citizens accused of carrying out the killing of a Hamas leader in Dubai last week.
On Thursday, the Israeli embassy in Britain appeared to allude to the two events by linking a story on its Twitter account about Peer's win over Caroline Wozniacki in the previosu round. "You heard it here first: Israeli tennis player carries out hit on #Dubai target," read the accompanying message.