Indian Wells Open: Daniil Medvedev overcomes Dubai ordeal to beat Alejandro Tabilo

Medvedev had an eventful week as he lifted the Dubai Tennis Championships trophy on Saturday without having to play as his opponent Tallon Griekspoor withdrew from the final due to a hamstring injury.

The former world No 1 was due to leave the United Arab Emirates the following day, but all flights out of the country were cancelled as airspace in the Middle East was closed due to the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran with several areas in Dubai also coming under attack.

Medvedev and fellow players Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov were among a group of more than 40 players, staff, officials and journalists who were initially told to stay put in their hotels.

The reigning world No 11 gave his fans an update about the situation on Sunday morning, but appeared pretty calm as he revealed his wife was with him at their Dubai hotel.

"I stayed in one of the hotels where something happened, so we had to evacuate at night with my wife," he explained.

"It, like, how can I say, I think it depends the kind of person you are and the situation that you're in, so if I would be with my kids, I'd probably be more stressed about the situation. The kids were not there. They were back home in Monaco.

"I was, like, okay, the main thing is now, okay, how do we try to get to Indian Wells? I will be honest with you, if not tennis, I think I would probably stay in Dubai, because I did feel quite safe there. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how I felt there.

"But for me, it was about, okay, how do we get to Indian Wells, and how do I get my wife back to kids in Monaco. We managed to do it.

"And again, that was the main part, because, for example, when was it, on Sunday, the next day, we were in the mall, we were enjoying ourselves in Dubai. I feel like we were not too much stressed about the situation itself but more about how do we move on from there."

Once they were given the green light to leave the UAE there was a big scramble as flights remained cancelled so they had to come up with an alternative plan which involved a long car ride to Oman.

When asked to give a detailed account of the ordeal, the 2021 US Open winner said: "It was not easy to decide what to do, because that was a little bit the toughest part. At one moment we were texting a lot with Andrey and Karen, for sure. 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 to 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. So a lot of time on the phone, which drains you a lot, trying not to be on my phone 24/7, and when you are, it's tiring physically.

"As I say, just a bit more tired physically coming here than usual, but I managed to deal well with it."

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