Palermo tournament director vows not to repeat the mistakes of Novak Djokovic's Adria Tour
The resumption of tennis amid the COVID-19 pandemic has hit a few roadblocks, with the infections at Novak Djokovic's Adria Tour as well as Frances Tiafoe's positive test at an exhibition in Atlanta sounding ominous. Although the former infamously failed to implement social distancing measures, many fans and experts have expressed doubt about whether it is safe for the tour to resume.
The tournament that will kick off the return of professional tennis is the WTA International in Palermo, which is set to begin on Monday. The event features the likes of Petra Martic, Anett Kontaveit, Maria Sakkari and Donna Vekic, and is expected to be a sign of how the tours will go about their business over the next few months.
Oliviero Palma, the tournament director at Palermo, recently spoke in an email interview about the challenges he and the players would face. Palma also relayed his disappointment over Novak Djokovic's Adria Tour, and explained how future tournaments can learn from the missteps there.
Novak Djokovic's Adria Tour showed a 'lack of respect': Palma
Palma ripped into the Adria Tour, and claimed that the tournament showed a 'lack of respect' for public health.
"I see the Adria Tour as a failure," said Palma. "It showed a lack of respect to all the sacrifices many people had done to safeguard everybody’s health."
The Adria Tour, hosted and funded by Novak Djokovic and members of his family, led to Borna Coric, Grigor Dimitrov, Viktor Troicki and Djokovic himself testing positive for coronavirus in Croatia. Djokovic, as the host and World No. 1, received a majority of the heat for the debacle - with many even calling for his resignation or removal from the post of ATP Players' Council president.
Palma went on to echo the concerns of Roland Garros tournament director Guy Forget, who had claimed that the Adria Tour has been the biggest lesson for tournaments aiming to restart amid the pandemic.
"It helped understand that right now nothing can be done if we don’t adhere to the rules. We’re restarting safely and that’s all that matters," asserted Palma.
The director did his best to ensure that the restrictions put in place were good enough and that the safety of everyone was the top priority. But World No. 2 Simona Halep, the most high-profile player set to be present at Palermo, still withdrew from the event citing safety concerns. To add to that, an unnamed player in the Palermo draw tested positive for COVID-19.
As per WTA, the player is asymptomatic and has withdrawn from the Palermo Ladies Open. But it remains to be seen whether the event goes on without any further hitches, or if there's a repeat of Novak Djokovic's Adria fiasco.