PAT CASH
Tennis guru
How much do you fly? Too much! I’ve got a girlfriend in Hong Kong, kids in Oslo, London and Australia, a tennis academy on the Gold Coast, near Brisbane, and I’m looking at setting up academies in Spain and Turkey, too. Trying to keep everybody happy means a lot of time in the air.

I’ve done a couple of rippers recently: for instance, there was Brisbane–Sydney–Middle East– Hong Kong–Istanbul–London, all in two weeks and playing in each place.

I’ve done both extremes this year: I got upgraded into Emirates first class, which is just unbelievable; and I’ve done London to Hong Kong in cattle class as well.

How do you cope? First, sleep. In an ideal world you have a flat bed. And I’m not talking about those cop-out beds that seem to be going around at the moment, such as Qantas’s business-class bed. It sort of slides under the one in front, so it’s flat, but not level. It’s only slightly better than useless. You end up with your pants somewhere around your neck because you’re sliding down it.

Then you’ve got to drink water — lots and lots of it. Do not have a glass of wine; that’s a big mistake. And when you get off, do some exercise: go for a jog, or to the hotel gym, just to get your body going.

As for jet lag, there’s no way around it. I’ve flown back to Australia so many times, but it still takes me four or five days to adjust completely.

What is your flight from heaven? An empty one! It’s great to have some space.

...and from hell? When they lose your luggage. Air France is the worst: I’ve flown with them twice, and twice they’ve lost my bags. Unbelievable.

Do you ever get scared? No. Though I have had one close call. I was on a 100-seater over Austria: we came in to land, I looked out the window and there was another plane on the ground. Couldn’t have been more than 20ft below us. The pilot realised just then and hit the gas, but Jeez... it was close.

Ever sat next to anyone famous? Mel Gibson — though I was a bit preoccupied with my son on the flight and forgot all about it. Later, I introduced myself to him at a film premiere and he had to remind me we’d already met. Very embarrassing.

Carry-on or carousel? I’m a tennis player, and a sweaty tennis player at that, so I can’t survive without eight tennis shirts, eight tennis shorts, 20 pairs of socks, the lot. I use a big old Tumi suitcase. They’re expensive, but they’ll go around the world a million times.

Which is your favourite city so far this year? Hong Kong. The people are cool, it’s very clean, but it’s very much an Asian city — not like Singapore, which is almost western now. I stay at Le Meridien Cyberport (www.lemeridien.com, doubles from about £115). It’s in the IT area, a bit out from the action, but it’s great — modern, trendy, and still quiet because it’s new. Go to the cafe at the Island Shangri-La (00 852 2877 3838, www.shangri-la.com) for breakfast. Best I’ve ever had in my life: croissants, dim sum, fruit, every sort of eggs — it’s all unbelievably good.

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