前印度名將談喬帥事件 「他有點沒常識」 - 網球 Tennis

前印度名將談喬帥事件 「他有點沒常識」
2020/07/02 10:19


喬科維奇舉辦慈善賽事，自己卻中了武漢肺炎。（資料照，路透社）

〔體育中心／綜合報導〕綽號喬帥的網球男單球王喬科維奇，在舉辦亞德里亞慈善巡迴賽
後感染武漢肺炎（新型冠狀病毒病，COVID-19），對此印度名將、前ATP球員理事會主席
維傑（Vijay Amritraj）告訴路透社的記者，他認為喬帥應該要有點常識。

在該場巡迴賽後確診的選手除了喬帥外，還有2017年ATP年終賽冠軍的迪米特洛夫（Grigo
r Dimitrov）、丘里奇（Borna Coric）和楚易基（Viktor Troicki）等人。多位選手確
診，也讓身為主辦人的喬科維奇受到了嚴厲的輿論批評。

維傑認為，喬帥身為世界球王，想舉行慈善賽事「絕對是正確的」，也遵守當地政府的規
範運作，但他仍然該要付出更多心力與準備來確保所有人的健康安全。

維傑認為喬帥這場慈善賽事衍生出的災難證明，球場裡擠滿了觀眾，社交距離與口罩會變
得毫無效果，也證明停賽五個月後將在八月開始舉辦的ATP賽事，應該要禁止觀眾入場。

「我們沒辦法在球場裡聽到觀眾的鼓掌聲，這顯然會對球員產生影響。」維傑補充道：「
但我想這是球員必須去適應的。」

https://tinyurl.com/y9b73sjj

原文：

Djokovic event lacked bit of common sense, says Amritraj
Sudipto Ganguly


MUMBAI (Reuters) - Novak Djokovic's intentions in organising the ill-fated Adr
ia Tour were good but the world number one could have applied a bit more commo
n sense to how the exhibition event was run, former ATP players' council head
Vijay Amritraj has told Reuters.

The Serbian has faced fierce criticism after he, Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric
and Viktor Troicki contracted COVID-19 following the charity event in Serbia a
nd Croatia.

Indian Amritraj told Reuters that while the world number one's intentions were
"absolutely correct", and that he had followed local government protocols, he
should have went the extra mile to ensure the health and safety of everyone i
nvolved.

"In hindsight, yes, obviously he could have taken a lot more precautions befor
e running the event," the 66-year-old television pundit told Reuters by teleph
one from Los Angeles.

"In spite of certain local government mandates, I think it is critical to foll
ow some common sense."

Djokovic has apologised and admitted it was probably "too soon" to run the eve
nt, which was played in front of packed stands in Belgrade.

HUGE RESPONSIBILITY

Amritraj, who reached a career-high ranking of 18 and beat Bjorn Borg, Rod Lav
er and Jimmy Connors in his playing career, thought the tournament would have
been good for tennis as it would bring the sport back on television.

"As days progressed, I realised that they were going to put about 1,000 people
in a stadium and I really didn't know how big the stadium was," he added.

"And later on ... after finding out that the event itself had pretty much a fu
ll house from the perspective of fans and none of this social distancing, mask
s, all of that were even in play, it became very much more of a concern."

Djokovic also heads up the players council on the ATP Tour and Amritraj, who h
eld the same post for four terms from 1989, said it came with a "huge" respons
ibility.

"Same for Roger (Federer) and Rafa (Nadal), whatever they say or do is going t
o have a great degree of influence over the sport worldwide and what people th
ink," he added.

Amritraj said the Adria Tour debacle showed there should be no crowds if, as p
lanned, the main circuits restart in August after a gap of five months.

"The crowd usually makes a huge difference," he said.

"Unfortunately you will lose that element of the match. It'll be pretty straig
htforward to see a spectacular point and there'll be no applause in the way.

"So that certainly will affect the players. But again, it's something that we
have to get used to, and it's better than not having it at all."

(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; editing by Nick Mulvenney and Peter Rutherford)


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