Novak Djokovic facilitating the doomed Adria Tour where several players who have tested COVID-19 positive, were seen talking, helping each other, playing basketball, and partying as they did in pre-COVID-19 days however Matic said they should adhere to any social distancing standards because Serbia had eased limitations.
After his coach Goran Ivanisevic and players Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric, and Viktor Troicki returned positive tests on the two legs in Serbia and Croatia, Djokovic was blamed for facilitating the tennis tournament in a pandemic.
Matic told Sky Sports: “Individuals have to understand that the situation was preferable in Serbia over here in England. The nation allowed individuals to do whatever they wanted, the strip malls, and the restaurants were all free. And they began carrying on with normal lives because our nation was bolted for a quarter of a year. You couldn’t descend the road, you were unable to leave your home because it was not the same as (England).”
Although some unofficial tournaments were played in the stands without fans, for example, the Battle of the Brits show tournament in London, the Adriatic Tour attracted a horde of capacity the Serbian capital Belgrade.
Matic added: “When they opened up they said, ‘you’re more than free to do whatever you want. Prior to this tournament, there was a game of 20,000 participants and nobody said anything about it. I simply wanted to clarify that he didn’t think about the tournament his fault, he simply attempted to help players in tournaments. I didn’t see anything amiss with him.”
