The Adria Tour was an exhibition tennis tour held in June 2020 in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, Serbia and

Zadar Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar serv ...

, Croatia. It was organized by the world No. 1 ranked player

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...

during the ATP Tour's shutdown due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The event fell under heavy criticism due to its lack of social distancing procedures, and allowing a full crowd, unlike the simultaneous Ultimate Tennis Showdown. A planned Montenegrin leg was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns. During the Croatian leg, Grigor Dimitrov, one of the marquee players, announced that he had tested positive for the

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...

, leading to the event being abandoned. Borna Ćorić, Dimitrov's last opponent, tested positive the next day.

Viktor Troicki Viktor Troicki ( sr-Cyrl, Виктор Троицки, ; born 10 February 1986) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. He won his first ATP singles title at the 2010 Kremlin Cup, and his second and third ATP singles titles at the 2015 a ...

and Djokovic himself tested positive over the next two days.

Tournament

After the

ATP ATP may refer to: Companies and organizations * Association of Tennis Professionals, men's professional tennis governing body * American Technical Publishers, employee-owned publishing company * ', a Danish pension * Armenia Tree Project, non ...

announced on 12 March that all tennis events would be suspended for at least six weeks due to the

proposed an exhibition tournament in his home region of the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

from 13 June to 5 July. The schedule and locations proposed were: *

, Serbia — 13–14 June *

, Croatia — 20–21 June * Montenegro — 27–28 June *

Banja Luka Banja Luka ( sr-Cyrl, Бања Лука, ) or Banjaluka ( sr-Cyrl, Бањалука, ) is the second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city of Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is also the ''de facto'' capital of this entity. I ...

, Bosnia and Herzegovina — 3–4 July *

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

, Bosnia and Herzegovina — 5 July Unusually for events during the pandemic, fans were allowed to attend, but organizers said that a one-meter distance between each spectator would be enforced. This was not the case during the Serbian leg, however, which was tightly packed.

Format

The matches proposed were a shorter version of tennis called

Fast4 Tennis Fast4 Tennis is a format for playing a tennis match, initiated by Tennis Australia, which leads to a shorter match, by the use of varied rules compared to the traditional rules of tennis. Whilst the majority of professional tournaments are still r ...

where the first player to win 4 games wins the set, with 2 sets winning the match. Each stop on the tour followed a round-robin system between players in two pools, with the pool winners playing in a final.

Participants

The following is a list of players for the tournament: * The singles competitors secured for the event were top players, compared to other unofficial tournaments around the same time.

Finals

In the Belgrade tournament, Dominic Thiem defeated surprise finalist Filip Krajinović in three sets in the first leg. The cancelled final of the second leg was to be between

and Andrey Rublev.

Aftermath

It was revealed on 21 June that Grigor Dimitrov tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

after participating in the Zadar event and then returning to his home in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

. The announcement by Dimitrov on

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took place shortly before the final was to be played in Zadar, with the crowd awaiting the players to enter the court. After Dimitrov's announcement, the final was cancelled. Social media posts and photographs of the players showed them hugging, shaking hands, playing basketball, and dancing together during the event, as well as during the previous event a week and a half earlier in Belgrade. Borna Ćorić, who played against Dimitrov at the

event and was seen to hug Dimitrov before the game, also revealed on 22 June that he tested positive for COVID-19.

and his pregnant wife Aleksandra announced they had tested positive hours later. On 23 June, Djokovic announced that both he and his wife Jelena had also tested positive for COVID-19. On 26 June, Djokovic's coach Goran Ivanišević confirmed that he had tested positive for the virus as well.

Gallery

File:Tennis court in Banja Luka.jpg, Tennis court in

made for Adria tour

References

External links

* {{Tennis exhibition tournaments Novak Djokovic Clay court tennis tournaments Sports events curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic June 2020 sports events in Europe 2020 in tennis 2020 in Croatian tennis 2020 in Serbian sport 2020 scandals COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia Exhibition tennis tournaments Tennis controversies