Henry Patten: Escape from Dubai amid conflict in the Middle East

But there will soon be much better news. Shortly after the ATP offered players the chance to board a charter flight from Muscat, officials from Emirates Airlines arrived at the hotel lobby and began booking guests on increasingly available flights.

All European destinations were booked by the time they reached Patten, who ended up settling in for an 8am flight via Cairo the next morning.

The ATP Tour has been criticized by some players for not immediately canceling this week’s Fujairah Challenger event in the United Arab Emirates.

“Realistically, I’m not sure what they could have done,” Patten said. “No one really expected this level of escalation to come.”

“Arnau [Brugues] And Hans Jurgen [Ochs] They were the ATP representatives who were there. Their job is to make sure tennis tournaments run smoothly, and here they are in charge of 44 people in an active war zone.

“I told both guys they did a fantastic job in the circumstances.

“But I wasn’t particularly happy when he became ATP CEO [Eno Polo] She called and said: We will charter a plane for you. We don’t have any information about this and you have an hour and a half to decide.

“It showed a real lack of understanding and empathy, as he sipped his coffee on a Zoom call.

“If the ATP was going to hold tournaments in Dubai, where I was certainly aware there were a lot of geopolitical tensions, it would have been good to have some kind of crisis management on the ground, which we haven’t really received.

“But the situation is really difficult and complicated.”

Tourism sources told BBC Sport they are focusing on providing accommodation and support for players at the official hotel, after being advised that the safest option was to stay put.

Flights from Dubai International Airport were their favourite, as the car journey is very short and there was uncertainty about border crossings.