When Djokovic announced in Might he would host the Adria Tour, it appeared like tennis was slowly but surely emerging from the shutdown, which experienced led to the initial cancellation of Wimbledon given that World War II.

The Adria Tour, which was scheduled to be played in 4 towns from June 13 as a result of July 5, experienced attracted a few-time grand slam finalist Dominic Thiem of Austria, earth No. 7 Alexander Zverev of Germany and three-time main semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, among other folks. Djokovic’s 24-yr-old brother, Djordje, was named event director.

Talking at a start push convention on May perhaps 27, Djokovic said he was “incredibly delighted” to announce the series, organized by him and his spouse and children. He stressed “absolutely all money” from it would be heading to humanitarian corporations, ahead of proudly announcing that all the players would be actively playing for free.

He also said the tour would “stick to to and adhere to” the neighborhood regulations and guidelines.

Belgrade celebration

When Djokovic performed his initial match towards fellow Serb Viktor Troicki on the afternoon of Saturday June 13 in Belgrade, some 4,000 spectators had stuffed the stadium close to the Danube river to ability, with couple of admirers sporting masks. The gamers, great good friends, hugged soon after Djokovic gained in straight sets.

They also shook arms with the umpire, when ball young children handed them their towels. They took selfies with supporters afterwards, and signed autographs.

Serbia and Croatia, neither of which skilled key virus outbreaks, experienced lately lifted many lockdown steps. But the Serbian federal government was nevertheless asking men and women to continue to be one particular meter apart. The lack of social distancing left a lot of stunned.

The seemingly carefree mother nature of the occasion, which arrived a few days after a 20,000-sturdy crowd attended a soccer match in Belgrade, also amazed Crow, a former main executive of London-primarily based sports advertising company Synergy.

“It was a screw-up,” he stated. “As quickly as you turned the Television on, you think, ‘Hang on a 2nd, what is heading on in this article?’ And regrettably, we all know what transpired.”

Driving closed doors

The confined social distancing at the Adria Tour was in sharp contrast to other exhibition gatherings for the duration of the pandemic in the US, Germany, Britain and France, which were being all held behind closed doorways.

When Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams’ long-time mentor, needed to host an event at his academy in the south of France in the course of the lockdown, he attained out to the authorities. It sent him a long list of protocols, which he has implemented in his Best Tennis Showdown series.

“I wished to make confident to do it in a way in which no a single is at hazard,” Mouratoglou advised CNN Sport in a phone interview on Friday.

These contain all gamers getting analyzed the working day prior to every weekend’s matches, no lovers, no handshakes or ball-sharing involving gamers, ball kids carrying gloves and masks and enough length between each individual seat in the players’ box.

Speaking at the ceremonial opening of the Adria Tour the working day just before his match versus Troicki, Djokovic defended the limited social distancing of the group.

He emphasized Serbia had “much better numbers” when compared with other nations around the world. In accordance to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Middle, Serbia has experienced 13,372 verified instances, such as 264 fatalities. Neighboring Croatia experienced registered 2,483 conditions, which include 107 deaths.

“You can also criticize us and say this is perhaps unsafe but it’s not up to me to make calls about what is correct and erroneous for wellbeing,” Djokovic additional. “We are executing what the Serbian government is telling us.”

Dimitrov’s bombshell

Then arrived the bombshell announcement by Dimitrov on Sunday June 21 that he experienced analyzed favourable for coronavirus.

The organizers swiftly canceled the whole sequence, even though most of the other players have been tested the exact same evening. Then, on Monday, Croatia’s Borna Coric confirmed he way too experienced examined positive, though Zverev, previous US Open up winner Marin Cilic of Croatia and Russia’s Andrey Rublev all examined damaging but promised to self-isolate for 14 days as a precaution.

Troicki revealed he had analyzed favourable quickly following and then, on Tuesday, Djokovic verified that he, far too, and his spouse, Jelena, had performed the very same. Troicki’s pregnant spouse, Djokovic’s health and fitness mentor and Dimitrov’s mentor have been also beneficial. Then on Friday, Djokovic’s co-mentor, Wimbledon winner Goran Ivanisevic, disclosed he also analyzed good.

“He is a young guy and can bear it less difficult,” she explained. ‘I also assume this virus is close to the close so this appears to be just like a next wave of Corona, which is not as strong as in the starting.”

“It is awful, as well horrible, what they publish (international media), but we are applied to it. It is like they could not wait around for it (poor news) to transpire. It is noticeable that they have anything in opposition to Novak.”

Condemnation

The condemnation was rapid, with Australian player Nick Kyrgios labeling it a “boneheaded decision” to go forward with the event. Britain’s Andy Murray stated that just after observing some of the photos of the article-party social gathering in Belgrade and of kids’ working day it was “not astonishing how a lot of people had tested constructive.”

The blame game was speedily in whole flow, with Djokovic’s father Srdjan pointing the finger at Dimitrov.

“He caused key harm to you in Croatia, to us as a spouse and children and to us as Serbia,” Djokovic’s father extra, continuing to point the finger at Dimitrov.

Dimitrov’s agent failed to quickly react to CNN Sport’s request for remark, but he was commonly quoted as telling other media that “Grigor landed straight in Belgrade immediately after three months of complete isolation. Neither in Belgrade (the first quit) nor later in Zadar was he supplied or required to test for coronavirus.”

Reputational fallout?

This hasn’t been Djokovic’s only brush with controversy through the pandemic.

Soon just before the begin of the Adria Tour, Djokovic, who is also president of the player council of the men’s ATP Tour, angered some gamers by suggesting he may perhaps not choose component in the US Open in New York at the finish of August for the reason that organizers reported they required to limit participant entourages to just just one more man or woman.

“He’s normally been an unconventional thinker,” explained Crow. “That is section of his makeup.”

But Crow, who has labored with some of the world’s biggest businesses, would not consider the collapse of the Adria Tour has destroyed Djokovic’s personal model.

“It can be not perfect but I feel it can be just a blip,” explained Crow. “He did it with the greatest intentions and he realizes he has screwed up. And everybody screws up, every after in a although.”

Djokovic’s agent hadn’t responded to CNN’s request for comment at the time of publication.

If it hadn’t been for the virus, he could have been very well on his way to tying or even surpassing both of those Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer as the most profitable male participant of all time.

When the activity shut down in March, Djokovic had won five of the very last seven majors, using his total tally to 17. That is just two shy of Nadal and a few of Federer, who is out all period with a knee personal injury.

But instead of chasing his sixth Wimbledon title in the coming fortnight, Djokovic will devote most of it self-isolating with his family.