{"id":509692,"date":"2026-03-07T18:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T18:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/509692\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T18:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T18:16:10","slug":"one-tennis-stars-journey-from-dubai-back-home-after-a-title-win-amid-explosions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/509692\/","title":{"rendered":"One tennis star\u2019s journey from Dubai back home \u2014 after a title win amid explosions"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. \u2014 Trying to change his kids\u2019 car seats, in searing 86-degree heat, while attempting a border crossing from the United Arab Emirates<\/a> into Oman, was not how Harri Heli\u00f6vaara had expected his Dubai Tennis Championships<\/a> to go.<\/p>\n

He did not expect to wake up to the sound of an emergency alert for incoming missiles at 2 a.m. He did not expect to be told that he could not leave the United Arab Emirates, nor to walk onto court for an ATP Tour<\/a> final to the sound of explosions in the distance.<\/p>\n

Heli\u00f6vaara, 36, is a two-time Grand Slam doubles champion. He is also one of several tennis players who were stranded in Dubai early last week after Iran retaliated against U.S. and Israeli strikes by launching strikes of its own on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and some neighboring countries.<\/p>\n

The Dubai Tennis Championships is an ATP 500 event, a couple of rungs down from the Grand Slams. Heli\u00f6vaara won the men\u2019s doubles event, with partner Henry Patten of Great Britain, but it was the five days he spent trying to leave it that turned the past week into the most challenging of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cTennis has brought us into some strange situations and given us so many memories,\u201d he said during a phone interview from his home in Finland Friday, having landed in Helsinki late Wednesday night. \u201cI think we can add this one to the list.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last Saturday began unremarkably for Heli\u00f6vaara, the doubles world No. 8 who has been ranked as high as No. 3. He was playing with his children, daughter Alba, 4, and son, Aston, 2, when he checked his phone and saw reports of the United States and Israeli strikes on Iran. News then started to come through of retaliatory attacks, and before long Heli\u00f6vaara could hear explosions and fighter jets above. \u201cIt suddenly started to feel very real,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Emergency alerts have continued into this week, and the situation remains tense. The U.S. and Israel have launched further strikes on Iran, with Iran\u2019s U.N. Ambassador, Amir Saeid, telling reporters in New York Friday that at least 1,332 Iranian civilians have died. The UAE ministry of defense has recorded three fatalities, the New York Times<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

Heli\u00f6vaara and Patten were due to start their final against Croatia\u2019s Mate Pavi\u0107 and Marcelo Ar\u00e9valo of El Salvador at 4:30 p.m. local time.<\/p>\n

Heli\u00f6vaara was expecting the match to be canceled, but they and the singles finalists, Daniil Medvedev and Tallon Griekspoor<\/a>, were invited into the ATP\u2019s office and told that the matches could still go ahead, because local authorities had not instructed people to shelter in place.<\/p>\n

Later in the week, two lower-tier ATP events started in Fujairah, about 120 miles away from Dubai<\/a>, before being canceled following a security alert that saw players run off the court mid-match.<\/p>\n

An ATP spokesperson later said via email that the doubles final \u201cbeing played was in line with guidance from local authorities at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heli\u00f6vaara said he still expected the match to be canceled, and he and Patten postponed their warm-up in anticipation of it being called off.<\/p>\n

He said they were \u201cvery close\u201d to requesting it not happen, but admitted that \u201ceverybody is a little greedy\u201d and the players were aware that if the match were canceled, none of them would get the winners\u2019 prize money and points.<\/p>\n

Once they decided to play, Patten told Heli\u00f6vaara that they had to win, given they would likely have a lot of time for a final defeat to linger in the back of their minds over the following days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were walking to the court, and at the same time you could hear this huge roar of fighter planes,\u201d Heli\u00f6vaara said. \u201cIt was crazy. And then, during the first set, we heard some explosions. And you think, \u2018Are we still playing, really?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The noise of explosions was juxtaposed with what Heli\u00f6vaara called a \u201csurprisingly normal\u201d atmosphere, with a crowd, although sparse, not behaving much differently to at most events. Patten and Heli\u00f6vaara agreed afterwards that they had enjoyed feeling ensconced in the bubble of competitive sport, knowing that their insulation from the outside world wasn\u2019t going to last much longer.<\/p>\n

After winning 7-5, 7-5, the players expected an action plan from the tournament about what would come next. But the situation was so uncertain that they were just told to stay in their hotel and seek shelter.<\/p>\n

\"Harri<\/p>\n

\n Harri Heli\u00f6vaara (right) got to celebrate victory with partner Henry Patten (left). (Christopher Pike \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A few hours later, at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, Heli\u00f6vaara and his wife were awoken by the sound of an emergency alarm on their phones saying that missiles were headed toward the UAE.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the first real panic feeling that we got,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought, \u2018OK, we really need to get out of here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

They scooped up their sleeping children and headed downstairs, where many other guests at the five-star Creekside Hotel had gathered. They were told that they would be safe in their rooms and didn\u2019t need to head down to the basement \u2014 though Heli\u00f6vaara knows of people staying in other hotels who were sent underground. Another luxury hotel in Dubai, the Fairmont, was set on fire by a drone collision during the strikes Saturday.<\/p>\n

Heli\u00f6vaara said it was a blessing that his two children were too young to understand what was going on, even if he felt that Alba could sense her parents\u2019 anxiety. He also felt that the kids\u2019 presence was a blessing, as it forced them to try to keep things light. Patten, who was traveling solo, \u201cstruggled a little more because he was alone and then it\u2019s very easy to end up in this more negative circle,\u201d Heli\u00f6vaara said.<\/p>\n

Patten declined an interview request Monday.<\/p>\n

The tournament covered the cost of the family\u2019s ongoing stay at the hotel, which the next day saw them not even leave their room. \u201cA drone hit the airport that day, right next to the hotel for example, so you don\u2019t feel comfortable going outside,\u201d Heli\u00f6vaara said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to remind ourselves that the actual chance of something dropping from the sky on us was very, very, very low. But it\u2019s the uncertainty that\u2019s the difficulty there. You don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was another meeting with tournament and ATP staff on Sunday night, but he said there was precious little information. That remained the case Monday night.<\/p>\n

Heli\u00f6vaara was booking refundable flights everyday \u2014 \u201cmy credit card limit has been struggling\u201d \u2014 but flights out of Dubai remained grounded. But he saw that a commercial flight was going from Muscat, Oman, a couple of hours drive away, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Monday and managed to get four tickets. Patten got one as well, and so at 9 a.m. Tuesday, they gathered to leave the hotel.<\/p>\n

The car that came to pick them up was too small, and the driver for the replacement car didn\u2019t have his passport, which would be required to try to cross the border. \u201cIt was a mess from the beginning,\u201d Heli\u00f6vaara said.<\/p>\n

After leaving an hour later than planned, they got to the border and \u201cthings went downhill.\u201d<\/p>\n

The car they were in did not have the right documentation to cross the border, but eventually they all moved into another car, one with an Omani registration. Cars registered to the UAE were not being allowed over the border, which led to Heli\u00f6vaara moving his two children\u2019s car seats as the desert sun beat down, as well as the five people plus six bags eventually cramming into one car. It was so cramped that Heli\u00f6vaara and Patten, 6-2 and 6-5 respectively, had to share a seat in the back row.<\/p>\n

They sat for an hour, before being told that one of them was not authorized to leave the country. Heli\u00f6vaara is uncertain as to why, but he thinks it may have been to do with not having returned his rental car when it was due back \u2014 which had been impossible because the airport had been closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stress levels were high,\u201d Heli\u00f6vaara said. \u201cThere was just so much going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heli\u00f6vaara, his family and Patten were told to get out of the car, before being taken back to the first checkpoint in a police car.<\/p>\n

From there, they had to repack their stuff into another car, to take them back to Dubai. After about seven hours of sitting in either moving or stationary cars, the Heli\u00f6vaaras and Patten got back to their Dubai hotel. And then a fortunate reprieve \u2014 at around 11 p.m., Heli\u00f6vaara was summoned downstairs by the ATP manager to be told that Emirates staff were at the hotel sorting out flights for the guests, a luxury not afforded to many others unable to leave the country.<\/p>\n

He and his family managed to get on one to Milan, and got to the airport, which Heli\u00f6vaara said was \u201csurprisingly normal.\u201d \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe that Louis Vuitton and all the shops were open, the lounges were open. What\u2019s going on? The airport had been bombed two days ago but everything looks normal now.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the anxiety of fearing that they wouldn\u2019t be allowed to fly out after what had happened at the Omani border, Heli\u00f6vaara and his family got on the plane. He generally likes to be one of the last on in order to minimise the time his kids are on board for, but was taking no chances this time \u2014 and they promptly took their seats in economy.<\/p>\n

Griekspoor and Ar\u00e9valo were on the same flight, while Medvedev and fellow Russian players Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov had flown on a private jet from Oman to Turkey, before heading to Indian Wells, Calif. for the BNP Paribas Open.<\/p>\n

Players and staff from the Fujairah tournaments were also slowly finding routes out of Dubai.<\/p>\n

\"Workers<\/p>\n

\n Workers cleared debris from the Fairmont Hotel in Dubai, which was damaged during a missile attack by Iran. (Fadel Senna \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Heli\u00f6vaara has a big interest in aviation, and was skeptical about flying when there had still been fighter jets in the sky and explosions over the previous few days.<\/p>\n

There was a palpable feeling of relief when the plane took off, and entered Egyptian airspace after flying over Saudi Arabia. When they landed in Milan, Heli\u00f6vaara\u2019s wife broke down in tears. \u201cAnd it was just spontaneous clapping from everybody on the plane,\u201d Heli\u00f6vaara said. \u201cPeople were very emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was around 9 a.m., and their flight to Helsinki wasn\u2019t until 7 p.m. They booked into an airport hotel for the day and all four of them had the \u201cbest sleep\u201d \u2014 the days of fretting starting to dissipate. \u201cOver lunch we didn\u2019t have a single worry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Heli\u00f6vaara had been documenting events in his blog, in Finnish, and people were in touch asking what was happening. He started it as almost a travel blog, when traveling around the ITF circuit as a singles player in the early 2010s. After a hiatus, he started it again a few years ago. Written in Finnish, but read by many more in English online last week, it became a reference point for tennis fans seeking updates.<\/p>\n

Heli\u00f6vaara and his family were met by his dad at the airport. After one last challenge with reclaiming their bags (\u201cbut who cares?\u201d), they were dropped off at home at about 1 a.m. Thursday. Patten had a longer journey, but returned to London via Cairo and Rome, before heading to North Carolina, where he lives. The players and ATP staff, in total more than 40 people, have all now been able to leave Dubai.<\/p>\n

Heli\u00f6vaara and Patten have decided to skip Indian Wells, not feeling physically or mentally ready to compete. Heli\u00f6vaara hasn\u2019t trained since last Saturday\u2019s final, and won\u2019t over the weekend. Then he\u2019ll get back at it before flying out for the Miami Open March 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting home is always special, but this time, I thought \u2018please, let me be here for a while,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s so much stress and all that stress leaving the body, leaving the mind, I\u2019m feeling extremely tired still. It\u2019s been almost 48 hours since I came home, but I have no energy to do anything much.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the interview, Heli\u00f6vaara was taking his dog for a walk in the Helsinki snow, with the temperature at 23 degrees Fahrenheit. He knows that in the grand scheme of things and compared to what has been unleashed by last weekend\u2019s strikes and responses, he has not experienced any great struggle. It\u2019s still good to be home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice and wintery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIAN WELLS, Calif. \u2014 Trying to change his kids\u2019 car seats, in searing 86-degree heat, while attempting a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[690,12663,99,1794,428],"class_list":["post-509692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-culture","tag-global-sports","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}