BELGRADE, Serbia – Novak Djokovic’s parents defended their son Wednesday and blamed another tennis player for spreading the coronavirus at a series of exhibition matches hosted by Djokovic, who is No. 1 in the ATP Tour rankings.
Djokovic and his wife tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Tuesday. The 17-time Grand Slam men’s singles champion then apologized online for organizing the Adria Tour events, which brought together professional players from various countries to play matches in Serbia and Croatia.
Thousands of spectators attended the matches, and no social distancing was observed.
Djokovic’s outspoken father blamed the cancellation of the tour on Grigor Dimitrov, one of the three other players to test positive in the past few days. There is no evidence to suggest Dimitrov spread the virus to others.
“Why did it happen? Because that man probably came sick, who knows from where,” Srdjan Djokovic told RTL Croatia TV. “He didn’t test here, he tested somewhere else I think that’s not fair.