According to Aljazeera on Monday, two household tennis names have tested positive for coronavirus. Grigor Dimitrov of Haskovo, Bulgaria, the 19th ranked player in the world, tested positive on Sunday. Then, Borna Coric of Zagreb, Croatia, the 33rd ranked player in the world, tested positive on Monday.
Dimitrov and Coric were both participating in an exhibition tennis tournament on what is now the very controversial Adria Tour in Zadar, Croatia. Due to the positive test for Dimitrov, the final between world number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Andrey Rublev of Russia was cancelled. In addition to Dimitrov and Coric, two more people involved with the exhibition in Zadar also tested positive. They were Djokovic’s fitness coach Marko Paniki, and Dimitrov’s coach Christian Groh.
Last week in Serbia, competitors played an exhibition event in Belgrade, which was also part of the Adria Tour and was won by Dominic Thiem of Austria. However, the event got more criticism than praise, and rightly so. Aljazeera called the event “a reckless attitude to the pandemic.”
You may not always agree with Australian great Nick Kyrgios. However, his criticism of the Adria Tour is 100% accurate. According to the BBC, Kyrgios said “it was a bone-headed decision to go ahead with the ‘exhibition.’”
When it came to protocols, Djordje Djokovic, the younger brother of Novak, stated that “we took all the measures stipulated by the Croatian government.” Still, by agreeing to go on with the tournament in the first place, was clearly not the right choice. The bottom line is we are still in a pandemic and we need to take all of the necessary precautions. When hearing of the positive test of Dimitrov, Kyrgios stated “that’s what happens when you disregard all protocols. This is not a joke.”
I will go one step further and even state that Kyrgios was showing outstanding leadership. The Djokovic family, which organized the event, deserves all of the criticism they are taking at this time. At the event in Serbia, there was a capacity crowd of 4,000 people who attended, and there were images of ball kids without masks, and celebrating with Djokovic, Thiem, Dimitrov, and German superstar Alexander Zverev. All who participated were at risk of getting coronavirus and the organizers did not take all of the necessary precautions regarding safety and social distancing.
Many involved in the sport of tennis need to do better at this time. Those involved in organizing the six tournaments on the ATP Tour from August to October need to learn from all of the clear mistakes made by the Adria Tour the last two weeks.
