After being
suspended for three months due to the coronavirus pandemic, top-level
international tennis returns this weekend in Belgrade with a charity tournament
hosted by world number one Novak Djokovic and where fans will be welcome.
The Adria Tour will
be held until July 5 in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia.
On the tournament’s
first stop, on Saturday and Sunday, the Serbian star will be joined by world
number three Dominic Thiem.
Germany’s Alexander
Zverev and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, ranked seventh and 19th in the
world respectively, are also set to take part.
The ATP and WTA
Tours have been suspended since March due to the pandemic and will not resume
at least until the end of July.
The French Open was
postponed until September and Wimbledon was cancelled for the first time since
World War II.
The four tennis
stars will play under regulations allowing up to 1,000 people to attend
open-air sports events, which were introduced in Serbia on Monday.
The matches will be
played at Novak Tennis Centre, financed by Djokovic’s family, with a view of
the Danube river.
Tickets sold out in
seven minutes after they were put on sale online last Wednesday.
The event will be
broadcast live in more than 100 countries, its director Djordje Djokovic, Novak’s
younger brother, said.
“Every spectator
will get a mask at the entrance, disinfectants will be placed throughout the
complex,” Djordje Djokovic said.
Also, the entire
centre will be disinfected after every match.
“We are
professionals in this sport and we want to play,” said the 33-year-old
Djokovic.
However, two tennis
giants—Roger Federer, out for the rest of the year following knee surgery, and
Rafael Nadal, who recently resumed training—will be absent.
“Taking the
situation into account, I didn’t have the nerve to call and invite them,” said
Djokovic.
Both Djokovic and
Thiem were training during the lockdown.
“I had a tennis
court so I could train every day,” said Djokovic referring to his period of
confinement in Spain, where he was staying with his family at a home in
Marbella.
Thiem said he was
the best prepared player in Belgrade since he has played matches in Austria
behind closed doors.
After the Serbian capital, the tournament will move to Zadar, on Croatia’s Adriatic coast, where Djokovic and his peers will be joined by two Croatian tennis stars — former US Open champion Marin Cilic and Borna Coric.
After Montenegro,
the event will end on July 5 with an exhibition match between Bosnian number
one Damir Dzumhur and Djokovic.
“In Sarajevo and
Bosnia, people really love Djokovic… it will be an exceptional event for
them, an ideal opportunity to see Novak up close,” world number 107 Dzumhur
said.
All the matches
will be played on clay.
The money raised
will be donated to various regional charities.
Balkan countries
coped with the coronavirus pandemic with relative success.
The region of some
22 million people registered fewer than 24,000 infections and around 700
deaths.