The “horror show” by Novak Djokovic

The world number one tests positive for Covid-19 and receives an avalanche of criticism on the circuit for his irresponsible attitude

Deep down, if you watch the stage with just the right amount of cynicism, Novak Djokovic has made a huge contribution to the fight against the Covid-19 by irresponsibly organizing his exhibition tournament in Serbia and Croatia. The contagion of one of the best known athletes in the world, the current number one in ATP tennis rankings, throws a valuable moral that echoes all over the planet: the virus is still very present and measures cannot be taken as a joke of prevention to avoid contagions. After Grigor’s positives Dimitrov (19 del rnking), Borna Coric (33), the Viktor Troicki (184) and his pregnant wife and the technicians Christian Groh and Marko Paniki, both Djokovic himself and his wife, Jelena, announced from Belgrade that they have also contracted the disease.

And now, of course, the wailing arrives. The ATP president summed it up perfectly, Andrea Gaudenzi, in statements to the New York Times: This is like when your children start riding a bicycle and tell them they have to put on a helmet. They tell you no, no and no. Then they get on the bike and fall off. From there they put on the helmet. The serious thing about the situation is that whoever has fallen off the bike is the best tennis player in the world and who has dragged with him those who, seduced by the confidence that Nole gives off due to his hierarchy as an athlete, were present in one way or another in the unfortunately historical Adria Tour.

In the statement in which he announced his contagion and that of his wife -his children have given negative-, Djokovic moved between mea culpa and self-justification. It was all born with a philanthropic motivation to raise funds for people in need. We organized the tournament at a time when the virus had already weakened, believing that the conditions proposed to carry it out were correct. Unfortunately, the virus was still present, a reality that we are still learning to endure and live with, explained the 17 grand slams champion, who is symptom-free but will have to be in quarantine for at least 14 days.

The tournament had been a waste whose authorization is only understood from the idolatry to the local fraud and the voluntary submission to everything he does. It wasn’t just the exhibition matches between some of the best tennis players in the world – they were also Dominic Thiem (3) and Alexander Zverev (7), both negative in the test-, but everything that was around: parties in discos, crowded dinners, basketball pachangas, press conferences in which journalists did not fit, mass baths in airports and other spaces .. Suffice it to say that the tournament was canceled minutes before the scheduled final between Djokovic and Andrei Rublev and with the stands full of public. Masks? Not even one. For social distance, better not ask.

“This takes the cake”

You never told me again that something I have done is irresponsible or stupid. This takes the palm, it was dispatched Nick Kyrgios, the enfant terrible of world tennis, of course, oblivious to the tournament organized by Djokovic, such as Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal, to cite the two most representative examples. To further scorn, Djokovic is the president of the ATP Players Council, the body that should ensure the integrity and rights of tennis players against the organizers and other classes. Another of its members, the Brazilian dubber Bruno SoaresHe was one of the few tennis players who did not bite his tongue: It was a show of horror, of immaturity and enormous irresponsibility.

The first consequence of the positives of the Adria Tour is the postponement of the 25th Anniversary Tournament of the Juan Carlos Ferrero, scheduled for next week, and in which tennis players such as Pablo Carreo, Lex de Miaur and Feliciano Lpez were going to participate. For the resumption of the world circuit there are still a couple of months, so the condition should be minimal.