When Djokovic announced in May that he would host the Adria Tour, it seemed like tennis was slowly emerging from the close, which had led to Wimbledon’s first cancellation since World War II.

The Adria tour, which is scheduled to be played in four cities from June 13 to July 5, has attracted three times grand slam finalist Dominic Thiem from Austria, world number 7 Alexander Zverev from Germany and main semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov from three times. Bulgaria, among others. Djokovic’s 24-year-old brother, Djordje, was appointed as director of the tournament.

Speaking at a launch press conference on May 27, Djokovic said he was “very happy” to announce the series, which was organized by him and his family. He stressed “absolutely all income” from that would go to humanitarian organizations, before proudly announcing that all players would play for free.

He also said the tour would “follow and abide by” local rules and regulations.

Belgrade party

When Djokovic played his first match against fellow Serbian Viktor Troicki on Saturday afternoon June 13 in Belgrade, around 4,000 spectators had filled the stadium near the Danube river to capacity, with some fans wearing masks. Players, good friends, embrace after Djokovic wins in straight sets.

They also shook hands with the referee, while the ball children handed over their towels. They took selfies with fans afterwards, and signed autographs.

Serbia and Croatia, which did not experience major virus outbreaks, recently raised many lockouts. But the Serbian government still asks people to remain one meter apart. Lack of social distance makes many people stunned.

The seemingly carefree nature of the event, which took place several days after a crowd of 20,000 attended a soccer match in Belgrade, also surprised Crow, the former chief executive of the London-based sports marketing agency, Synergy.

“It’s chaotic,” he said. “As soon as you turn on the TV, you think, ‘Wait a minute, what is happening here?’ And unfortunately, we all know what happened. “

Behind the closed door

The limited social distance on the Adria Tour contrasts sharply with other exhibitions during pandemics in the US, Germany, Britain and France, all of which are held in private.

When Patrick Mouratoglou, former coach of Williams Williams, wanted to host an event at his academy in the south of France during lockdown, he reached out to the government. That sent him a long list of protocols, which he had applied in his Ultimate Tennis Showdown series.

“I want to be sure to do it in a way where there is no risk,” Mouratoglou told CNN Sport in a telephone interview on Friday.

This includes all players tested the day before the match every weekend, no fans, no handshakes or sharing the ball between players, ball children wearing gloves and masks and sufficient distance between each seat in the player box.

Speaking at the ceremonial opening of the Adria Tour the day before the match against Troicki, Djokovic defended the limited social distance from the crowd.

He stressed Serbia had “better numbers” compared to other countries. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, Serbia has had 13,372 confirmed cases, including 264 deaths. The neighboring country, Croatia, has registered 2,483 cases, including 107 deaths.

“You can also criticize us and say this might be dangerous, but it’s not up to me to make calls about what is right and wrong for health,” added Djokovic. “We did what the Serbian government told us.”

Dimitrov’s bomb

Then came the announcement of a bomb by Dimitrov on Sunday June 21 that he had tested positive for the corona virus.

The committee quickly canceled the whole series, while most of the other players were tested on the same night. Then, on Monday, Borna Coric from Croatia confirmed that he had also tested positive, while Zverev, former US Open winner Marin Cilic from Croatia and Andrey Rublev from Russia were all declared negative but promised to isolate themselves for 14 days as a precautionary measure.

Troicki revealed that he had tested positive soon afterwards and, on Tuesday, Djokovic confirmed that he too, and his wife, Jelena, had done the same thing. Troicki’s pregnant wife, fitness coach Djokovic and coach Dimitrov were also positive. Then on Friday, Djokovic’s co-coach, Wimbledon winner Goran Ivanisevic, revealed he also tested positive.

“He is a young man and can bear it more easily,” he said. ‘I also think the virus is nearing its end so this is like the second wave of Corona, which is not as strong as it was at the beginning. “

“It’s terrible, too terrible, what they write (international media), but we’re used to it. It seems like they can’t wait (bad news) to happen. Obviously they have something against Novak.”

Punishment

The criticism was swift, with Australian Nick Kyrgios calling it a “stupid decision” to continue the event. Briton Andy Murray said that after seeing some photos of the post-event party in Belgrade and children’s day, “it is not surprising how many people tested positive.”

The blame game quickly flowed, with Djokovic Srdjan’s father pointing a finger at Dimitrov.

“He caused great damage to you in Croatia, to us as a family and to us as Serbs,” Djokovic’s father added, continuing to point his finger at Dimitrov.

Dimitrov’s agent did not immediately respond to CNN Sport’s request to comment, but he was widely quoted as saying to other media that “Grigor landed directly in Belgrade after three months of complete isolation. Both in Belgrade (first stop) and later in Zadar was he offered or asked to testing the corona virus. “

Impact of a reputation collapse?

This is not the only Djokovic dispute with controversy during the pandemic.

Shortly before the start of Adria Tour, Djokovic, who is also the president of the men’s ATP Tour player board, angered some players by suggesting he might not take part in the US Open in New York at the end of August because organizers said they wanted to limit the group of players to one additional person. .

“He has always been an unconventional thinker,” Crow said. “It’s part of her makeup.”

But Crow, who has worked with some of the biggest companies in the world, did not consider the collapse of Adria Tour to have damaged Djokovic’s private brand.

“It’s not ideal but I think it’s just a blip,” Crow said. “He did it with the best of intentions and he realized that he had messed it up. And everyone messed up, once in a while.”

Djokovic’s representative did not respond to CNN’s request to comment at the time of publication.

If it wasn’t for the virus, he might have been on his way to tie or even surpass Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer as the most successful male players of all time.

When the sport closed in March, Djokovic had won five of the last seven majors, making his total count to 17. That’s just two shy of Nadal and three of Federer, who was absent all season with a knee injury.

But instead of pursuing his sixth Wimbledon title in the next two weeks, Djokovic will spend most of that by isolating himself with his family.