Novak Djokovic on Coronavirus, Faxes and his ill-fated Adria Tour

Negotiations and trans-Atlantic flight completed, this week Novak Djokovic sat on the bench of one of his hard-won concessions: a spacious rented house near New York City, nestled in the middle of the trees and far from the resurrection.

Djokovic had just donned a shirt after sunbathing on the terrace.

“With the trees and serenity, being in this kind of environment is a blessing,” Djokovic said on a Zoom call. ‘And I’m grateful because I’ve seen the hotel where the majority of the players stay. I do not want to sound arrogant like that, and I know the USTA did their best to provide accommodation and organize everything and organize these bubbles so that the players can actually compete and get here, but it’s hard for most of ‘ the players, who cannot open their window and are in a hotel in a small room. “

It has been a bumpy and torturous way of stationing the United States Open amid the coronavirus pandemic. Djokovic’s demands and complaints – public and private – did not make it any easier for the United States Tennis Association to facilitate the tournament. But unlike many other leading international players, including Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, Djokovic is actually here after this long and unexpected interruption of the tennis tour.

He is still rank no. 1 and remains a perfect 18-0 in 2020, just as he was when the pandemic-related hiatus began in March.

But he was hardly a big winner in the forced off-season. He generated concern and controversy by questioning vaccination and claiming that water could be affected by human emotions. And he boosted his credibility and brand by organizing the Adria Tour, a series of charity exhibitions in Serbia and Croatia in June that seriously lacked social distance and decorum, leading to a cluster of cases of coronavirus. It was canceled for the finish with several leading players and some support staff testing positive.

Djokovic and his wife Jelena were among them, and they isolated themselves for two weeks with their two young children in their hometown of Belgrade, Serbia.

“We were trying to do something with the right intentions,” Djokovic said of the tour. ‘Yes, there were some steps that could have been taken differently, but will I then be accused of making a mistake forever? I mean, OK, if this is the way, fine, I’ll accept it, because that’s the only thing I can do. Whether it’s honest or not, you tell me, but I know the intentions were the same and correct, and if I had the chance to do the Adria Tour again, I would do it again. ”

Djokovic was full of mixed emotions in this week’s interview, ranging from apologetic to derogatory, saying he had used the long break to deepen his connections with his family and his understanding of issues such as ecology and health.

“I think this is an enormous transformation phase for all of us on this planet, and I think maybe even the last awakening,” he said.

Djokovic said his coronavirus symptoms were mild, lasting four to five days. He said he did not have a fever but had fatigue and some loss of smell and taste and felt some loss of fitness when he initially returned to practice.

But concerned about the long-term health effects of the virus, Djokovic, who favors a plant-based diet and natural cure if possible, said he keeps a close eye on himself and investigates long-term effects.

‘I did a CT scan of my chest, and OK, everything is clear. “I have done several tests since my negative test for the coronavirus before I came to New York,” he said. ‘I’ve done my blood tests, my urine tests, my stool tests, everything I can possibly do. I do, of course, already avoid that prevention, but now more than ever, because we do not really know what we are dealing with. “

Djokovic, traveling without his family, arrived in New York on Saturday to ‘acclimatize’ to the tournament’s unusual restrictions and ‘just to be OK when the time comes’. ‘

He will first play in the Western & Southern Open, a combined men’s and women’s event that has moved from its usual location outside Cincinnati to the US Open site to create a two-tournament bubble. He will compete in singles and doubles, along with his Serbian compatriot Filip Krajinovic, with his first match, whether Sunday or Monday.

Both tournaments will be played without spectators at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, with players and their support staff regularly checked and banned from traveling outside their shelter and the tournament site without the express permission of US Open leadership.

“I was very close to not coming,” said Djokovic, who said he decided to go to New York for less than a week and only after players received guarantees from European governments that they would not be expected to be quarantined at the time. they traveled to Europe for the US Open.

“There were a lot of ambiguities,” he said. “And there are still, yes, a lot of things that are not really clear.”

He continued: “I want to play. I mean, I’m here. I personally am not afraid to be in a risky, dangerous health situation for me. If I felt that way, I probably would not be here. I am of course cautious, and I must be responsible and of course respect the regulations and rules and restrictions like everyone else. But things are unpredictable. Anything can happen on the tennis court or on the tennis court. ‘

Djokovic said his own experience with the coronavirus had not changed his views on vaccines. He said he would have made a difficult decision to make if receiving a coronavirus vaccine was required to compete on the tennis court.

“I see that the international media have taken that a bit out of context and said that I am completely against faxes of any kind,” he said. “My problem here with faxes is when someone forces me to put something in my body. I do not want that. To me that is not acceptable. I’m not against vaccination of any kind, because who am I to talk about vaccines when there are people who have been in the field of medicine and saved lives around the world? I’m sure there are vaccines that do not have many side effects that have helped people and helped stop the spread of some infections all over the world. ”

But Djokovic expressed concern about potential problems with a coronavirus vaccine.

“How do we expect that to solve our problem if this coronavirus regularly mutates from what I understand?” he said.

Djokovic said the USTA leadership was initially reluctant to allow players into rented homes during the US Open. They only imposed strict conditions. Djokovic not only has to pay the rent, but also for safety round the clock approved and controlled by the USTA, in part to help maintain the same protocols that other players follow.

This is not just the honor system.

“It’s super important that I made this investment because it will make me feel better,” Djokovic said. “I better come back and can actually have some outdoor time if I’m not on the site.”

He has come up with a maximum of three team members, another concession he worked to secure from the USTA, which originally planned to limit players to just one team member. One of Djokovic’s housemates is Goran Ivanisevic, the former Wimbledon champion who is one of his coaches and also contracted the coronavirus during the Adria Tour, along with other players and coaches.

For those who watched from afar, the outcome was logical in light of the lack of safety measures. Fans were allowed in stadiums. Masks were recommended but not required. Players hugged, high-fived and even danced the limbo in tight quarters at a Belgrade nightclub.

“I agree that things could have been done differently with the nightclub,” Djokovic said. “The sponsors organized. They invited players. We felt comfortable. We had a successful event. Everyone was really happy and cheerful. ”

Djokovic said the tour, conceived with the idea of ​​helping lower-ranked pro players in the former Yugoslavia during the hiatus, was organized in collaboration with national governments and tennis federations. At the time, the number of coronaviruses was low in Serbia and Croatia with some social restrictions.

“We did everything they asked us to do, and we followed the rules of Day 1,” Djokovic said.

But Djokovic said he soon realized that the view from abroad was very different.

‘When someone from Australia or America sees what happened in Serbia, they’re like,’ Oh my God, do I mean you’re crazy? What are these people doing? ” Said Djokovic. “I really understand that.”

There was also criticism in Croatia about the tournament and the role of the Croatian Tennis Federation in managing the event. But Djokovic, who also made big donations with his wife to coronavirus relief services in Serbia and Italy, still considers it worthwhile to organize the tour for the funds it generates for the region.

“I don’t think I did anything bad to be honest,” he said. “I feel sorry for people who were infected. Do I feel guilty for someone infected from that point in Serbia, Croatia and the region? Of course not. It’s like a witch hunt, to be honest. How can you blame one individual for everything? ”

Djokovic is 33, but this will be the first of 61 Grand Slam tournaments he has played in his long and triumphant career in which his biggest rivals – Nadal and Federer – will both be absent.

Nadal, 34, the reigning champion of the US Open men, opted for the clay court season, which will follow the US Open’s newly reconfigured tennis calendar. Federer, 39, has no plans to play again in 2020 after two knee surgeries this year.

In New York, the right-wing Big Three will be reduced to one.

“It’s weird because these two guys are the legends of our sport and with or without crowds, they will miss a lot,” Djokovic said.

But he insisted that their absence and the absence of eight other players in the top 100 men, including 2016 US Open champion Stan Wawrinka, did not diminish the significance of this tournament in his opinion, because “a super majority of top players will be there.

Federer holds the men’s record with 20 Grand Slam singles titles. Nadal is 19. Djokovic is 17, and he said the search for 18 was “obviously” a major factor in his decision to cross the Atlantic.

“One of the reasons I remain a professional tennis player at this level is because I want to reach more heights in the tennis world,” he said.

He said Federer’s Grand Slam record and men’s record of 310 weeks at No. 1 remained below his primary goals. Djokovic is at 282 weeks and he was able to transfer Federer through March.

Djokovic said he feels ready after the longest period of his career, but he does not know for sure. And he would have welcomed discussion about playing the best-of-three sets at the US Open instead of the normal best-of-five.

‘Maybe we should have that conversation in the future. “Because these kinds of circumstances are very unusual,” he said.

His presence, no matter how difficult it is to secure, is a big impetus for both tournaments in New York. He has won three U.S. Open and five of the last seven Grand Slam singles titles. The absence of the entire Big Three would have sent the asterisk debate into overdrive.

“I can not say that it is the main reason I am here, but it is one of the reasons,” he said. ‘First of all I need to think about myself and my health and my fitness and whether my team is OK to be here. Once that was checked, of course I also felt responsible as a top player to be here. It is important for our sport to continue. ”