A TOI journalist’s first-person account from Dubai — a city under siegeDUBAI: An Irish village with a cluster of restaurants and pubs was buzzing last Sunday. There was live music playing on the big screen and he was playing tennis. The 70s hit Jolene, Jolene was drifting through the grounds. Located on the edge of Dubai’s Duty Free Stadium, home to the WTA 1000 and ATP 500 events that have electrified crowds over the past fortnight, the restaurant has been a magnet for fans soaking up the final days of top tennis in the desert.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!But just 24 hours after the last ball was bowled, Al Garhoud, a stone’s throw from Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest hub for international travel, feels eerily deserted. The space, which was a stage of movement and noise, now resembles a ghost town.All this against a backdrop of soaring tensions in West Asia after coordinated US and Israeli strikes on Iran triggered large-scale Iranian missile and drone retaliation. It led to major airspace closures and had hubs such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha struggling with thousands of canceled or suspended flights.
Celebrities and Influencers Trapped in Dubai Horror; The missile hits the luxury Palm Jumeirah hotel
Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu on Sunday described a “tense and scary” ordeal at Dubai International Airport where she and her Indonesian coach Irwansyah Adi Pratama were stranded after an explosion occurred near the area where they were staying amid escalating tensions.I came here to cover the tournament, expecting to catch a late evening flight home on Saturday.Instead, that flight was canceled and the city turned into an unexpected staging area with thousands of stranded passengers anxiously updating airline apps and searching for alternatives from a region where every route now appears to be blocked.Even world-class players like Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev are now deadlocked with the Indian Wells Masters set to begin on March 4. Rublev, a semi-finalist in Dubai, cut a lonely figure as he walked through the hotel lobby at Al Garhoud, perhaps wishing he had headed for the airport soon after his loss to Tallon Griekspoor on Friday.Conversations with fellow travelers and UAE residents revolve around the same question: “Have you heard? Drones, missiles and escalating tensions dominate every exchange. Saturday night brought a few restless, anxious hours, punctuated by government alarms screeching at midnight. When the alarm sounded, the instinct was not to evacuate, but to sit in stunned silence and wonder what would happen next.”Elsewhere, regional sport was further disrupted by the England and Wales Cricket Board’s decision to cancel England Lions’ 50-over-50 match against Pakistan Shaheens and postpone England Women’s training camp in Abu Dhabi.
