A Despite the fact that the majority of players and captains present in the final phase of the Davis Cup present the complete vaccination schedule, the maximum competition for passes will maintain strict COVID protocols during the dispute of the tournament that closes the professional calendar in 2021.
Both in Madrid, as Innsbruck and Turn, the three official venues in this edition and where a total of 18 teams will be concentrated, the protagonists will live in their bubble.
Tennis players and their companions pass a PCR test upon arrival in the host city and the process is repeated every 48 hours. Upon arrival at the playing court their temperature is taken and they are forced to fill out a health declaration through a mobile application.
Players They cannot have direct contact or interact with anyone outside their areas (training courts, dining room, gym, changing rooms), including family and friends.
And they can only leave their respective hotels, either to eat or walk, with people belonging to their bubble.. The mask is mandatory except for training sessions and games.
At the press conferences, only one component of the equipment can be without mask. The rest should stay with it and take it off when answering a question.
To find the last time that ATP players had encountered such strict measures, they had to travel to Wimbledon.
A normal life could be led at the US Open, especially those who proved to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Forbidden bars and clubs
In fact, it was the first time that direct contacts were given the opportunity of not having to isolate themselves in case of negative in the test.
In Madrid, Innsbruck and Turn, tennis players are forbidden to go to bars, discos or places of entertainment with a lot of people. All precautions are insufficient in the midst of a pandemic that caused the suspension of the tournament in 2020 and that the qualifying rounds in Austrian lands are played without an audience in the stands due to the confinement decreed by the local government due to the increase in cases.
In Innsbruck they play group C (France, Great Britain and Czech Republic) and F (Serbia, Germany and Austria). Novak Djokovic, despite the setback in the semifinals of the Masters Cup against Alexander Zverev, remains faithful to the defense of the Serbian flag.
The world number one already won the Silver Salad Bowl in 2010, which earned him a diplomatic passport. It should be remembered that the Davis Cup brings together in three European cities, from November 25 to December 5, 18 countries with very different situations with respect to the incidence of the coronavirus in the population. Australian tennis players, until now, had to quarantine every time they returned home.
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