Former Australian Open doubles champion Henry Patten has criticised the ATP Tour’s chief executive for a “real lack of understanding and empathy” over the body’s approach to getting players out of crisis-hit Dubai this week.
The Briton and his doubles partner Harri Heliovaara won the ATP 500 title in Dubai last Saturday, but were among those stranded after the United Arab Emirates came under attack in the ongoing Middle East conflict.
Around 40 players, officials and media were forced to stay longer in Dubai than planned after mass cancellations of flights and airspace closures in the region. Heliovaara’s wife and two young children were also unable to leave.
The ATP offered players a chartered flight from Muscat, the capital of Oman, but Patten ultimately managed to get on a flight to London via Cairo and Rome as representatives of the Emirates airline came to his hotel to arrange flights shortly after the ATP’s offer.
The Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) said the ATP Tour was expecting players to pay out of pocket for the chartered flights, at a cost of €5,000. The PTPA initially offered to pay half the cost and called on the ATP to cover the rest, saying, “We are taking this step to ensure that no player is forced to choose between their safety and their financial stability.”
The ATP later said it had fully funded the charter flights for players who chose to accept the offer.
Patten said the ATP’s two representatives in Dubai – Arnau Brugues and Hans-Juergen Ochs – “did a fantastic job” but was critical of the ATP’s chief executive, Eno Polo, over the handling of charter flights.
He told BBC Sport: “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 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.”
The ATP also came in for widespread criticism for not immediately cancelling a lower-level ATP Challenger event in Fujairah, around 120km away from Dubai, despite the outbreak of the conflict last weekend.
The tournament began on Monday and was suspended on Tuesday after a match was abruptly halted when air strike sirens rang out, with video footage showing players fleeing the court.
Patten and Heliovaara also endured a previous unsuccessful attempt to get to Oman by car. The driver was turned back at the border due to not having the necessary paperwork, and even after an Omani-registered vehicle was found it was too late to catch a flight, resulting in a fruitless 14-hour drive.
He described the experience as “mentally quite tough” and the eventual flight out of Cairo “wasn’t particularly enjoyable”.
Patten, a nervous flier, said he had to “pluck up the courage” to get on the plane and said the stress of the whole experience was magnified by seeing a drone hit the US consulate, only around five minutes from where he was staying.
He and Heliovaara have opted to skip this week’s prestigious Indian Wells tournament in California, where they would be among the favourites, as a result of their ordeal, instead prioritising rest and recuperation with family.
