134. S.O.S. – Reality Tennis

Obviously the atrocities that have been, and continue to be, taking place in the Middle East this past week are terrifying for everyone, and in particular for all the innocent people who are living, working in, or merely visiting that part of the world at the moment. This includes a bunch of male tennis players who were, until a few days ago, competing in an ATP C50 Challenger event in Fujairah, UAE.

Fujairah is one of the Emirates that makes up the UAE. It is located adjacent to the Gulf of Oman on the eastern edge of the country. I was there only recently, in December 2025, with my player, as she was competing in an ITF W75 event, at the same facility as the one the men were at last week.

Thankfully, a couple of days after the start of the men’s event, the decision was made to cancel the tournament last week, and the one planned for this week. This decision did not come quickly however, and in fact, only appeared to come about after a missile hit a nearby oil refinery, sparking a real sense of urgency in the region.

What happened over the course of the next 24-48 hours was interesting. Initially, the ATP, the governing body for all male pro tennis players, advised the players to leave the region immediately. No easy task when the majority, if not all, the airports in the region had been closed and all flights cancelled. The ATP realised this and arranged a charter flight for players, from Muscat, Oman back to Europe. However, the price for this organised evacuation, was set at €5,000 (c.£4,330) per player (plus an additional €5,000 if a coach was travelling with them).

Now considering that the total prize money for the one person who would have actually won the tournament was set at c.€8,200 (c.£7,100) this flight was deemed unaffordable by pretty much every player in the event. The PTPA (Professional Tennis Players Association) quickly realised this and offered to pay 50% of the ticket price for each player taking the flight, but even so this still made the cost of the flight out very expensive.

Fast forward a day or so and the ATP then agreed to cover the cost of getting the players out of the region on the charter flight, at no cost to the individuals concerned.

All of this however, made me, and many of the female players I was with last week, wonder if the ITF (the governing body for an equivalent women’s event) would have done the same for the women had they been in Fujairah. We will never know but based upon the fact that the ITF doesn’t even pay for the hotel accommodation or food for the women at the ITF W50 events (unlike the men playing the same level tournament), then it would be fair enough to assume that the answer might have been a negative – highlighting once again the discrepancies between the men’s and women’s tours and the need for there to be one governing body overseeing all (instead of three)!

As I have highlighted in earlier blogs, the only men’s events staged by the ITF are the M15 and M35 events (the ‘Futures’). Above this level, the tournaments are organised by the ATP and whilst the prize money at this level is generally on a par with the women’s equivalent ITF events, the difference lies in the provision of accommodation and hospitality. The women have to pay for theirs at W50 level whilst the men do not – it is all paid for by the ATP.

This makes a huge difference and raises the question as to whether or not the ITF W50’s are viable events for the women. Take this week for example, I was with my player at an ITF W50 in Helsinki. The cost of the (tournament) hotel for the week was c.€900 (£780). Flights to and from Helsinki were c.£900 each (we came from the US) and on top of that was food and transport. The net prize money for my player (yes, she had to pay Finnish tax), despite reaching the Doubles Final, was a mere €500 (c.£433), so despite making final, my player ‘lost’ a lot of money which begs the question, why bother to play? Surely the prize money for pro tournaments should at least be set at such a level that the majority of the players can get close to breaking even. And to add insult to injury, the nominated tennis balls for the Helsinki tournament were Dunlop ATP. Yes, you read that correctly, the ball used last week at the women’s ITF W50, were in fact, men’s tennis balls (much heavier), and when asked why, the players were told the balls were fine for any kind of ITF tournament (regardless of sex).

So much needs to be addressed! More on this in future blogs!

#realitytennis