But there would soon be much better news. Shortly after the ATP offered the players the chance to get on a chartered plane from Muscat, officials from Emirates airline arrived in the hotel lobby and started to book guests on increasingly available flights.
All European destinations had been booked by the time they got to Patten, who ended up settling for an 8am flight via Cairo the following morning.
The ATP Tour has been criticised by some players for not immediately cancelling this week’s Fujairah Challenger event in the UAE.
“Realistically, I’m not sure what they could have done. No-one really saw that level of escalation coming,” Patten said.
“Arnau [Brugues] and Hans-Juergen [Ochs] were the two ATP representatives who were there. Their job is to make sure that tennis tournaments run smoothly, and here they are responsible for 44 people in an active warzone.
“I’ve told the two guys that in the circumstances they did a fantastic job.
“But I wasn’t particularly happy when the CEO of the ATP [Eno Polo] called up and said ‘We’re going to charter you a plane. We don’t have any information about it and you have an hour and a half to decide.’
“That showed a real lack of understanding and empathy, as he was sipping his coffee on a Zoom call.
“If the ATP is going to operate tournaments in Dubai, where certainly I was aware there was a lot of geopolitical tension, some kind of crisis management on the ground would have been good, which we didn’t really receive.
“But it’s difficult and a really, really complex situation.”
Tour sources have told Sport that they were focused on providing players with accommodation and support at the official hotel, having been advised the safest option was to stay put.
Flights from Dubai International Airport were their preference, as the journey by car is a very short one, and there was uncertainty about border crossings.
