The men’s tennis tour has canceled two tournaments in the United Arab Emirates, following a security alert that interrupted one of them Tuesday.
The ATP Tour then told players signed up for the two events in Fujairah that it would “potentially” be organizing a charter flight out of the region for €5,000 ($5,800) per passenger, in an email seen by The Athletic. The flight was said to be leaving at 3 p.m. local time Thursday, from Muscat in Oman, which is a three-hour drive from Fujairah and would require a border crossing.
In a second email, sent just under two hours later and also seen by The Athletic, it said it was not directly organizing a flight directly, and would instead explore “available travel options with third-party providers.”
Then on Wednesday afternoon, the ATP announced they would be covering the costs for all the players to get home.
“Following the cancellation of the ATP Challenger Tour events in Fujairah, the ATP has been working closely with tournament organisers to support players on site,” the statement read.
“Accommodation and essential needs continue to be covered by the tournament, and a charter flight has been arranged and fully funded by the ATP to assist with departures from the region at no cost to players.
“Separately, the vast majority of players who were in Dubai have successfully departed today on selected flights. The safety and wellbeing of our players, support teams and staff members remains our highest priority, and we continue to remain in close contact with those affected.”
Ilya Ivashka, who was due to play his final qualifying match for the event on Wednesday and had criticised the ATP for their response a day earlier, called it a “class act” on his Instagram.
In a statement confirming the cancelations, which was sent after the two emails, a spokesperson said that “the safety and wellbeing of our players and tournament personnel is our highest priority.
“Players remain on site and are being fully supported, with accommodation and all immediate needs covered while onward travel arrangements are explored.”
The first of two Challenger Tour tournaments in Fujairah, a city around 120 miles across the U.A.E. from Dubai, was suspended Tuesday at around 1 p.m. local time.
Three matches were in progress when play stopped, with footage of the match between Hayato Matsuoka and Daniil Ostapenkov showing the players, umpire, and ball kids rushing to leave the court after they were told to “get inside the building please.”
I’ve watched a lot of challenger tennis. This is the scariest thing I’ve seen on court pic.twitter.com/yckUehRnkS
— RacketRisk (@RacketRisk) March 3, 2026
UAE authorities later said that shrapnel landed at the Fujairah Oil Terminal, around eight miles from the Tennis Country Club Fujairah. The authorities said its armed forces had intercepted a drone attack, adding that no casualties were reported.
Vladyslav Orlov, the Ukrainian world No. 268, described hearing jets during his second-round qualifying victory over Ronit Karki Tuesday.
“When I was playing I heard the sounds of the jets flying here and there,“ Orlov said in a video posted on social media. ”And there is smoke going here next to the mountain, so not very safe here right now.”
Ivashka shared a screenshot of the email on Instagram, with the caption: “no words needed @atptour” followed by three hand-clapping emojis.
Marat Sharipov, who was playing in the singles and doubles events, wrote on Instagram: “Thank you @atpchallenger for arranging us a charter for ONLY 5000 euros! That’s slightly more than the prize money after taxes for winning the tournament, but l appreciate the gesture!”
The Professional Tennis Players’ Association, which organized an ongoing antitrust lawsuit against the tours and Grand Slams, then pledged to pay half of the hypothetical fee if the ATP Tour would match the other half, despite the tour’s clarification that no such plan would take place.
The PTPA described itself as “deeply concerned” by the decision to hold the tournament in the first place, and the ATP and the tournament organizers did not respond when asked why the first Fujairah tournament had gone ahead in the first place. It began Monday, two days after the retaliatory strikes on the UAE began.
Finn Bass, the British world No. 296 who had originally been scheduled to play in the tournament, expressed his disbelief at it taking place.
Posting on X on Tuesday afternoon before the cancellation, he wrote: “Was meant to be playing there this week, cannot believe they’ve gone ahead and not cancelled the event. Madness.”
The players and staff involved in the tournaments now face the challenging task of trying to leave the country, with most flights still grounded and changes and cancellations fluid. Flights bound for Dubai’s airport, which was damaged by a missile over the weekend, were held Tuesday after fresh interceptions in nearby airspace.
Those who were involved in the latter stages of the ATP 500 Dubai Tennis Championships, including top-20 players Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, have been trying to get flights out since Saturday.
Both are entered for the BNP Paribas Open, a 1,000-level event — the rung below the Grand Slams — in Indian Wells, Calif., which starts Wednesday. As seeded players, Medvedev and Rublev will not play until Friday at the earliest.