Andy Murray: 'It's not surprising that Novak Djokovic's Adria Tour had positive..'

For the last couple of days, the second leg of the Adria Tour in Zadar has been the main topic in every tennis-related media. World no. 1 Novak Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric and Viktor Troicki (he played the first part of the Tour in Belgrade) have all tested positive for the coronavirus, which forced the organizers to cancel the event. Novak Djokovic has been under immense pressure from almost the entire world of tennis for hosting the event without strick social distancing measures, with him and other players spending time with kids, playing football and basketball. On the other side of Europe, the 'Battle of the Brits' occurs at the National Tennis Centre in London, in front of no crowd or ball boys and with strict health protocols.

Former world no. 1 Andy Murray played his first match since November on Tuesday night, beating Liam Broady 6-2, 6-2 in an hour and a half for the winning start.

Murray broke Broady five times, struggling to find his strokes after such a long break but doing enough to seal the deal strongly. Speaking about the Adria Tour controversy, Andy said it was hardly surprising to see players tested positive without social distancing and everything they did outside the court. Murray is currently ranked 129th, winning his first ATP title in more than two and a half years last fall in Antwerp and playing only one match in singles at the Davis Cup Finals in Madrid due to pelvic injury. 

"It's not surprising how many players have tested positive when you see the scenes and the images and the videos from the tournament and the players' party with no social distancing in place," Murray said. "I've seen some people say this puts the US Open in doubt, but the measures and the protocols they have in place are entirely different from what was going on in Serbia and Croatia. There will be no fans, and the players will now know we can all be affected by this, it doesn't matter who you are, we need to respect the rules. Today's performance was OK; I served well throughout the match. Didn't hit the ball that well from the back of the court, struggling with the timing. But it was OK. For the first match in seven months and not been practicing much, it was alright. The last time I picked up my balls was when I was about 17. Although we do it all the time in practice."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2YqERob