The ongoing conflict in the Middle East resulted in a scary situation on Tuesday at an ATP Challenger event in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as players were forced to flee the court due to nearby explosions.
The Fujairah Challenger event in Fujairah, a city on the UAE’s eastern Gulf coast, was suspended on Tuesday after a “security alert” linked to Iranian strikes on targets in the Gulf region, launched in response to attacks by the United States and Israel.
The decision to suspend play came after falling debris from the interception of a drone caused a fire in an oilfield located about nine miles from the site of the tournament. Play was suspended in line with established security protocols before being cancelled for the remainder of the day. Shortly after, the remainder of the tournament was officially canceled.
Red: explosions
Blue: tennis tournament13km away https://t.co/s3eAXmYlV4 pic.twitter.com/HDqwWmN7no
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) March 3, 2026
“Following consultation with local authorities and security advisors, play has been cancelled for the remainder of the day as a precautionary measure,” the ATP said in a statement.
A video from the moment play was suspended has gone viral on social media. The video shows Belarusian Daniil Ostapenkov and Japan’s Hayato Matsuoka scrambling for shelter after a public announcement of the explosions in the area.
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
Fellow player, Vladyslav Orlov of Ukraine, took to social media to share what he experienced as play was suspended.
“I just finished my match in Fujairah, second round, but the play is suspended for today,” Orlov said on Instagram. “When I was playing, I heard the sound of the jets flying here and there. And there is smoke here, next to the mountain, so not very safe here right now.”
Following the cancellation of the tournament, players will now have to find their way out of the country, and the ATP is not offering much help.
On Tuesday afternoon, a message surfaced indicating that the ATP was organizing a charter flight out of the region, departing from Muscat and going to Milan, stopping on the way in Egypt. However, the organization was asking players to pay 5,000€ – which is equivalent to about $5,800 – for the flight. There was some question about the legitimacy of the message, but prominent tennis journalist José Morgado confirmed that this was indeed a real message from the ATP.
While the players at the tournament are indeed professional tennis players, the Challenger-level players are a tier below the ATP World Tour, and they make significantly less money. In fact, one analysis suggests that the median professional tennis player in the world only makes about $22,000 a year. Morgado also points out that any player who traveled with their coach would have to buy two tickets on this charter flight.
Needless to say, that is quite a large sum of money for players to come up with at that level of professional tennis, especially when, as Morgado points out, the players are already forfeiting two weeks of tournaments, points and prize money.
About Dave Kelsey
Contributing author to The Comeback.