Doesn't matter whether it is dictatorship, sports is sports.
I can even endorse a slam in south africa if it promotes tennis in africa and produces powerful athletes.
I understand the wish to believe sport is apolitical, but sports are highly political in a huge variety of ways.
South Africa is an excellent example. By the mid-1970s, almost all professional global sporting bodies (despite the moral dubiousness of many) had banned South Africa from participating in global professional sport over Apartheid. The road to that point began against the backdrop of decolonization movements following World War II, and continued through to the 1960s (1955 Bandung Conference, 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, 1964 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, etc.), and into the 1970s. However, South Africa were allowed to participate in the Davis Cup from 1973 having previously been excluded after a series of events triggered by the refusal to grant Arthur Ashe a visa in 1970. In 1973, the government did provide Arthur Ashe with a visa so he could compete in the South African Open.
During that visit, Ashe met members of the South African government and visited Soweto so he could, in his own words, see Apartheid with "his own eyes and own mind." This had, in some ways, been the first globally-visible result of a near-decade long effort on the part of non-white South Africans to further their cause for racial justice through sport which had begun with the forming of SAN-ROC in 1962 (South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee). However, Ashe's visit caused conflict between those who believed that a boycott of South Africa was the best way to apply global political pressure to topple Apartheid, and those - like Ashe - who saw dialogue and diplomacy as the better strategy. Spurred on by Ashe's visit, some Americans - most notably Richard Lapchick - began to use the United States' global position to further pressure South Africa by forming a coalition of anti-Apartheid groups in the United States which assembled as "ACCESS" (American Coordinating Committee for Equality in Sport and Society) in 1976. Along with the founder of SAN-ROC, Dennis Brutus, Lapchick and all the members of the ACCESS coalition succeeded in bringing further attention to the situation and were praised heavily by the then-exiled ANC. Josiah Jele of the ANC noted that ACCESS had "through its initiatives and activities has answered the call by millions of sportsmen and sports-loving people in South Africa in their just struggle to attain non-racial and democratic sport."
In 1977, ACCESS took direct aim at South Africa's participation in the Davis Cup, with Lapchick declaring "the ultimate goals were to have South Africa thrown out and the matches to never take place...it was painful that we knew so little about South Africa in the United States." Critically, the Davis Cup tie was scheduled to take place in the United States (April 15 to 17), and Dennis Brutus who was exiled and then living in the United States wrote to President Carter and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, along with many racial justice movements in the United States including the CCBA (Coalition of Concerned Black Americans). Letters were also sent to the USTA pointing out their hypocrisy given the earlier ban imposed on South Africa between 1970 and 1973:
"...it is inconceivable that under such circumstances, as the position of the rest of the world hardens, American tennis interests persistently press their attempts to reverse their own ban of the early 1970s. More, they are attempting to force other Davis Cup member nations to accept South African players under threat of being themselves ousted." (Letter by Jewell Handy of the CCBA).
Slew Hester, then president of the USTA, said there would be no attempt to stop the matches, and declared they would go ahead as planned. When Bob Lutz and Stan Smith played Byron Bertram and Frew McMillan, 400 protestors had, during the first two sets, been chanting "South Africa, Go Home!" but in the third set, two protestors, Rev. Alvin Dortch and Stanley Alexander, ran onto the court and poured motor oil on the surface prompting U.S. Davis Cup captain Tony Trabert to run after them and hit with his racquet, and force the police to come onto the court. The match resumed, but protests continued the following day with ten people running onto the court while Roscoe Tanner was facing Ray Moore. A spokesperson for the hundreds of protestors which had turned up at the Newport Beach Club said "the demonstration was aimed at the sporting philosophy of South Africa, which runs counter to that of the United States, where competitors are chosen on the basis of merit."
More protests were held in 1977 when Vanderbilt University hosted a Davis Cup tie. Students and faculty marched outside the college campus every day hold signs reading "Racism Is Not Fun and Games: Don’t Play Ball With South Africa." The Chancellor of Vanderbilt at the time Alexander Heard, argued that cancelling the tie would go against the university's "traditional open forum" philosophy. In response, 200 faculty members signed a petition "abhorring Apartheid and all denials of human rights." As efforts continued, South Africa eventually added Peter Lamb - someone the South African government "officially" listed as "colored" - which ultimately led to Ray Moore quitting the South African team arguing that "I neither embrace nor endorse the policy of apartheid. I resent the interference of politics in the Davis Cup. In particular, I wish to play no part in a situation that threatens to turn a sporting event such as this US–South African match into a political demonstration." As the situation escalated in 1978, many countries began boycotting the Davis Cup including Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, and many Caribbean nations. The climax of the protests came when Lapchick was invited to appear on the PBS coverage of the 1978 United States-South Africa Davis Cup tie in Nashville, where he made the point that no arena in life was free of politics, and that everyone participates in socio-political actions and systems everyday.
Lapchick made the case that the value systems of play and sports are based in ideas of competition, fairness, and sportsmanship - ideals that ACCESS activists had consistently linked to the ideals of the United States design of democracy. These, ACCESS had argued, were obviously lacking in South Africa and sports were a microcosm of their Apartheid society. ACCESS also pointed out that ignoring it was a form of endorsement - something which the ITF heard and acted upon, banning South Africa from the Davis Cup again in 1978.
In sum, we all participate in political systems both consciously and unconsciously, and the story of the South African Davis Cup team in the 1970s makes this clear. Therefore, that means we - the fans - have more of a voice collectively than we might popularly imagine, and despite the power of capitalism and globalization, if we embrace the politics of sport rather than ignoring or denying it, then there is power for change at the grassroots level.
