Daniil details disorganised Dubai departure

Daniil Medvedev on Saturday managed a surprisingly comfortable 6-4, 6-2 win over Alejandro Tabilo at the Indian Wells Masters only a few days after successfully arriving from Dubai.

The winner by default of the Gulf event last Saturday in a walkover against injured Tallon Griekspoor revealed the stressful departure organised by the ATP for players and support staff stuck in at the event when the US bombed Iran and the blowback reached the rich emirate.

“At one moment we were texting a lot with Andrey (Rublev) and Karen (Khachanov). So me and Andrey decided let’s go to Oman, let’s try to find something there.

“It was not easy to find, because everyone was trying to leave, and there were not a lot of slots to leave or planes to leave. But we managed find a plane.

“So Karen joined us, and the next day we managed to fly to Istanbul, and then Istanbul to Los Angeles. It was just longer and a bit more stressful in terms of logistics than usual.”

The player, travelling with his wife with the children back home in Monaco, said he was feeling after effects of the stressful journey to LA and then the Californian desert

“If it was not for the tennis I would have stayed in Dubai, I felt quite safe there.

:”It was how do we get to Indian Wells; we managed to do it.”