Eugene Lapierre: Adria Tour shows that events will have to adopt extreme measures

Eugene Lapierre, Vice-President of Tennis Canada and Director of the Montreal Rogers Cup, says tennis authorities will need to ensure that all safety & security measures are in place for any upcoming events after the positive results coming out of the Adria Tour last week.

Eugene Lapierre on lessons learnt from the Adria Tour

According to the RDS website, Lapierre says, "I think everyone wants to get back on the courts as quickly as possible - there was the Adria Tour, the Ultimate Tennis Showdown and the invitation tournament this week in Charleston - in order to prepare for the official relaunch activities. It is commendable, but what has happened there (with the Adria Tour) has highlighted the fact that there is nothing to settle yet. If we put matches in place, then we will have to follow extreme measures. So I think the mistake that Djokovic made this week, it was good to see him apologize so quickly."

Lapierre says the lessons learnt will also help the USTA prepare for the upcoming US Open. "All of this will serve this purpose: there will be a bubble around the United States Open and the Cincinnati tournament, and some players - including Djokovic - were reluctant about the numerous sanitary measures. What happened at the Adria Tour demonstrated the seriousness with which the United States Open will prepare the site and access for players. It is still not certain that the United States Open will take place in late August. I heard the tournament director say again this week that we don't really know where we're going. But we keep our fingers crossed, because the situation is still under control in the New York region. It should go ahead, but we will have to adopt extreme measures to confine the players in a bubble between the hotel and the competition site."

On the postponement of the Davis Cup to next year, Lapierre says, "It is not really a surprise, considering all the problems experienced by the various tournaments and the rest of the season, knowing that the fall may be bad. There is still a lot of insecurity with regard to the security and health measures that need to be taken. And we must not forget that there were to be qualifying matches (for the Davis Cup) in September for several countries. This is all put back to 2021, and it makes a lot more sense."

Several participants at the Adria Tour, including World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov, Viktor Troicki and Borna Coric, along with Goran Ivanisevic and some others tested positive for the coronavirus after taking part in the Adria Tour in the Balkan region. 

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