The Adria Tour was an exhibition tennis tournament held in June 2020 due to the ATP tour shutting down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Tour was organized by the Serbian sensation Novak Djokovic, one of the best tennis players in the world and was scheduled to be played in four cities from June 13th until July 5th but was unfortunately cancelled when Novak Djokovic along with his wife and three other players, Borna Ćorić of Croatia, Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria and Viktor Troicki of Serbia tested positive for COVID 19 during the tournament.
The Tennis World and social media were very harsh critics of this and hit out at Novak Djokovic for organizing the Adria tour in the first place and blamed Djokovic for exhibiting an event with the audience involved amid the coronavirus pandemic, with players hugging and high-fiving each other, playing basketball and dancing together. The new norms of social distancing were not practiced at the event, and people were also seen not wearing masks.
On Tuesday evening, Djokovic apologized for holding the tournament under the current situation.
He tweeted:
“I am so deeply sorry our tournament has caused harm. Everything the organizers and I did the past month, we did with a pure heart and sincere intentions,” he added.
“We believed the tournament met all health protocols and the health of our region seemed in good condition to finally unite people for philanthropic reasons. We were wrong and it was too soon. I can’t express enough how sorry I am for this and every case of infection.”
But the tennis world has not accepted his apology and continues to be critical of his lack of decision making and irresponsibility.
Nick Kyrgios, the Australian star also took to social media to show his disappointment and tweeted:
“Boneheaded decision to go ahead with the ‘exhibition’ speedy recovery fellas, but that’s what happens when you disregard all protocols. This IS NOT A JOKE.”
Some other players including Danielle Collins and Daniel Evans also accused Novak as selfish.
Although some of his fans defended him, he had someone very important defending him as well, which was Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, who stated:
“Every part of him. He tried to do something good for the whole region. To put politics aside and help young and non-established tennis players, as well as to raise money for humanitarian purposes.
“It’s my fault, it’s not Novak Djokovic and leave the man alone,” said Brnabić.
She points out that she would personally try to do something and be criticized, rather than sitting at home and watching everything from the sidelines and doing nothing. “Every part and all support to Novak,”.
The Serbian has a lot of negativity surrounding him on social media right now. Although all he’s done is acknowledge his mistakes and just wrote a message for the people criticizing him, his apology did not seem sincere to many people and a lot of people are still in doubt of his personality.
“Boats don’t sink because of the water that surrounds them, but because of the water that enters into them. Don’t allow the surroundings to get inside you and to drag you to the bottom”.
Do you think Novak Djokovic should get a second chance? Or was this mistake too much and proves his selfish and self-centered personality? Or should the Adria Tour at least have practiced social distancing rules and included no audience.
Comments are closed.