Novak Djokovic has a lot to do to clean up his reputation: Todd Woodbridge
Novak Djokovic has caused a storm over the past few days due to his controversial Adria Tour. Hosted and funded by the Serb and members of his family, the exhibition tournament came to a grinding halt after Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov tested positive for COVID-19 right before the second leg was to reach its conclusion.
Later three other players - Borna Coric, Viktor Troicki and Novak Djokovic - were found to have tested positive for the virus. And the World No. 1 fell to the axe of many critics, who held him solely responsible for the debacle.
The Serb did himself no favours after it was also revealed that he was the only high profile player present at the tournament in Zadar to have not gotten tested there. Instead, flew back to his hometown in Belgrade to get tested, seemingly carrying the virus with him.
Fingers were already being pointed at Novak Djokovic during the tour's first leg in Belgrade that had no social distancing norms in place. The players, including the World No. 1, were even seen dancing in a nightclub with their shirts off.
The Serb apologised on Tuesday after both he and his wife tested positive, but his critics did not back off. Many experts and fellow players even called for him to step down, or be removed from, the position of President of the ATP Player Council.
Retired Aussie Todd Woodbridge, who is one of the greatest doubles players in the history of tennis, has now weighed in on the issue too.
Novak Djokovic may be removed as the President of the Player Council, says Woodbridge
The 16-time Grand Slam champion slammed Djokovic for his reckless behaviour in an interview with Sports Sunday, while also hinting that the Serb's position as president of the ATP Player Council is in danger.
"He (Novak Djokovic) has a lot to clean up, his reputation," said Woodbridge. "He's the president of the ATP. Many of the world's media went hard at him for the way this was all set up. It has been terrible for our sport this past week."
"Obviously with Novak and his wife testing positive, Grigor Dimitrov, Goran Ivanisevic, Borna Coric and many of their team as well."
Woodbridge further went on to say that Djokovic hasn't set a great example for the tour, and that he would have to put in a lot of effort to bounce back from this disaster.
"He's the leader of the players and he didn't set a great example. So he's going to have to do a lot to bounce back from that. Many of the players have called for that (resignation), we'll wait and see what happens," said the Aussie.
Novak Djokovic was also critical of the "extreme" restrictions suggested by the USTA to hold the US Open in August and the Aussie, who has six titles at Flushing Meadows, commented on on that as well:
"He wasn't all that appreciative of what the US Open were trying to do to get the tournament up and it's put a big dampener on getting tennis started again."