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Thoroughly monitor your fitness before the U.S. Open. He doesn’t oppose all vaccines, but he shouldn’t be forced to wear one to play. And he says he had good intentions with his excursion to a group of coronaviruses.
By Christopher Clarey
With negotiations and the transatlantic flight completed, Novak Djokovic sat on the couch of one of his hard-won concessions this week: a spacious rented space near New York, nestled among the trees and away from the hustle and bustle.
Djokovic had put on a blouse after sunbathing on the terrace.
“With trees and serenity, being in these kinds of environments is a blessing,” Djokovic said in a call to Zoom. “And I’m grateful, because I saw the hotel where most of the players stay. I don’t need to sound arrogant or anything like that, and I know America. He did his best to provide accommodation and organize everything and organize those bubbles so that players can compete for real and come here, but it is difficult for the maximum of players, not to be able to open the window and be in a hotel in a small room ».
The road was full of potholes and meanders to organize the U.S. Open amid the coronavirus pandemic. Djokovic’s requests and court cases, both public and personal, did not allow the U.S. Tennis Association to facilitate the tournament. But unlike many other more sensible foreign players, along with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, Djokovic is here after this long and unforeseen interruption of the tennis circuit.
It still ranks No. 1 and still has an 18-0 record in 2020, as did when the pandemic-related rupture began in March.
But he was hardly a big winner in the forced off-season. It caused fear and controversy by asking about vaccination and claiming that water can be affected by human emotions. And he undermined his credibility and logo by organizing the Adria Tour, a series of charities in Serbia and Croatia in June that lacked serious social distance and decorum, leading to a coronavirus case organization. It was cancelled prior to arrival with several very sensitive players and some attendees tested positive.
Djokovic and his wife Jelena were among them, and moved remotely for two weeks with their two young men in Belgrade, Serbia.
“We try to do anything with the right intentions,” Djokovic said of the tour. “Yes, there were steps that may have been done differently, of course, but then you will blame me for making a mistake? I mean, it’s okay, if it is, it’s okay, I’ll settle for that, because that’s all I can do. Whether it was fair or not, tell me, but I know the intentions were right and correct, and if I had a chance to do the Adria Tour again, I would do it again.”
Djokovic was filled with mixed feelings in this week’s interview, ranging from apologies to provocations, and said he had taken advantage of the long pause to deepen his ties to his family circle and his understanding of problems such as ecology and health.
“I think it’s a phase of massive transformation for all of us on this planet, and I think even the last awakening,” he said.
Djokovic said his coronavirus symptoms were mild for four to five days. He said he had no fever yet and was tired and had lost some smell and taste and felt some loss of endurance when he returned to training.
But with growing fear of the long-term effects of the virus on fitness, Djokovic, who favors herbal nutrition and an herbal healer whenever possible, said he looks closely at and examines the long-term effects.
“I did a scan of my chest, and it’s okay, everything is clear. I also did several checks from my negative coronavirus control before I came to New York,” he said. “I did my blood tests, my urine tests, my stool tests, as much as I could. Anyway I do this prevention, but of course now more than ever because we don’t know what we’re dealing with.”
Djokovic, who was traveling without his family, arrived in New York on Saturday to “acclimatize” to tournament restrictions and “only to be well when the time comes.”
He will first play at the Western and Southern Open, a combined occasion of men and women who have moved from his same location as always outside the gates of Cincinnati to the site of the U.S. Open to create a two-tournament bubble. He will compete in singles and doubles, teaming up with fellow Serb Filip Krajinovic, with his first attack on Sunday or Monday.
Both tournaments will be played without spectators in the U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, players and their auxiliary staff will be evaluated and prohibited from traveling beyond their accommodation and venue of the tournament without the explicit permission of US Open management.
“He was about not to come,” said Djokovic, who said he had made the decision to go to New York less than a week before his arrival and only after the players got assurances from European governments that they would not be quarantined. your journey. Europe after the US Open.
“There was a lot of uncertainty,” he says. “And there are still, yes, many things that are not clear.”
He continued: “I need to play. I mean, that’s why I’m here. Personally, I’m not afraid to be in a dangerous and harmful fitness scenario for me. If I felt that way, I wouldn’t be here.” Of course I am careful and I have to be guilty and of course respect regulations, regulations and restrictions like everyone else. But things are unpredictable. Anything can happen on the tennis court or off the tennis court.
Updated August 20, 2020
Here’s what happens as the global game slowly comes to life:
Djokovic said his own joy with the coronavirus had not replaced his prospects for vaccines. He said he would have to take a complicated resolution if receiving a coronavirus vaccine is mandatory to compete on the tennis circuit.
“I see that foreign media have taken this out a little bit of context, saying that I am absolutely opposed to vaccines of any kind,” he said. “My challenge here with vaccines is if you force me to put anything in my body. I don’t need that. To me, that’s unacceptable. I do not oppose any kind of vaccination, because who am I to communicate about vaccines when are there other people who have been in the medicine box and who have stored lives all over the world? I am sure that there are vaccines that have few side effects that have helped other people and have helped prevent the spread of linked infections around the world. »
But Djokovic has expressed fears about the possibility of a coronavirus vaccine.
“How do we expect this to solve our challenge when this coronavirus mutates as I perceive it?” He said.
Djokovic said U.S. officials were first reluctant to allow players to stay in rented homes during the U.S. Open. They gave in, but they imposed strict conditions. Djokovic will have to pay not only the rent, but also the 24-hour security, approved and monitored across the United States of America, in an assistance component to implement the same protocols that other players follow.
It’s just the formula of honor.
“It’s very vital that I made this investment because it will make me feel better,” Djokovic said. “I’m going to recover more and I can spend time outdoors when I’m gone.”
He arrived here with the maximum of 3 team members, some other concession he was looking for from the United States of America, which planned to restrict players to a single member of the team. One of Djokovic’s roommates is Goran Ivanisevic, the former Wimbledon champion who is one of his coaches and also contracted coronavirus on the Adria Tour, along with other players and coaches.
For those who looked from afar, this result seemed logical given the lack of security measures. Fans were allowed to enter the stadiums. Masks were not yet mandatory. The players embraced, turned five and even danced limbo closely at a nightclub in Belgrade.
“I agree that things may have been done with the nightclub,” Djokovic said. “Sponsors have organized themselves. They invited the players. We feel comfortable. We had a successful event. Everyone was really satisfied and satisfied.
Djokovic said the tour, designed with the concept of helping lower-ranking professional players in the former Yugoslavia during the break, was organized in cooperation with national governments and tennis federations. At the time, the number of coronaviruses was low in Serbia and Croatia with few social restrictions.
“We did everything we were asked to do and we followed the rules of the first day,” Djokovic said.
But Djokovic said he temporarily understood that the foreigner’s point of view is very different.
“When someone from Australia or the United States looks at what’s going on in Serbia, they think, ‘Oh my God, I mean, are you crazy? What are these other people doing? Djokovic said.” Then I understand.”
The excursion and role of the Croatian tennis federation in the control of the event were also criticized in Croatia. But Djokovic, who has also made significant donations with his wife to the coronavirus relief efforts in Serbia and Italy, argues that the tour still appreciates the organization for the budget he has generated for the region.
“I don’t think I’ve done anything to be honest, ” he said. “I feel sorry for the inflamed people. Do I feel guilty about someone who has been inflamed since then in Serbia, Croatia and the region? Of course not. It’s like a witch hunt, to be honest. blame a user for everything? »
Djokovic is 33 years old, the first of the 61 Grand Slam tournaments he has played in his long and triumphant career in which his biggest rivals, Nadal and Federer, will not be either.
Nadal, 34, the U.S.Open men’s protective champion, has chosen to prioritize the season on clay courts that will largely mark the U.S. Open in the reconfigured tennis schedule. Federer, 39, has no plans to play again in 2020 after two knee surgeries this year.
In New York, the big three named will be reduced to one.
“It’s strange, because those two guys are the legends of our game and with or without crowds, they’re going to miss a lot,” Djokovic said.
But he insisted that his absence and the absence of 8 other players in the 100 most sensitive men, adding to 2016 US Open champion Stan Wawrinka, have not downplayed this tournament in his opinion because “a supermajor” of the players will be there.
Federer holds the men’s record with 20 Grand Slam singles titles. Nadal is 19. Djokovic is 17, and said the search for 18 “of course” is vital in his resolve to cross the Atlantic.
“One of the reasons I’m still playing professional tennis right now is that I need to succeed more in the tennis world,” he said.
He said Federer’s Grand Slam record and 310-week men’s record at number 1 went back between his main goals. Djokovic is 282 weeks away and could beat Federer in March.
Djokovic said he felt in one position after the longest break of his career, but he’s not sure. And I would have welcomed a discussion about betting the most productive 3 sets on the US Open instead of the same old and more productive of five.
“Perhaps in the long run we will have this conversation. Because those kind of cases are very unusual,” he said.
His presence, difficult to secure, is a major asset for any of the tournaments in New York. He has won 3 US Open and five of the last seven Grand Slam singles titles. The absence of all the Big Three would have overloaded the debate about the asterisk.
“I can’t say that’s the main explanation for why I’m here, but that’s one of the explanations why,” he said. “First of all, I have to think about myself, my fitness and my fitness and whether my team will be here. Once this was verified, of course I also felt guilty as the most productive player to be here. It’s vital to our game to continue. “
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