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

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

, Serbia and

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

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

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Новак Ђоковић, Novak Đoković, separator=" / ", ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at N ...

during the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...

's shutdown due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The event fell under heavy criticism due to its lack of

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...

procedures, and allowing a full crowd, unlike the simultaneous

Ultimate Tennis Showdown The Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) is an international individual tennis league that was founded in 2020. The competition was organized by tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou and businessman Alex Popyrin, father of professional tennis player Alexei P ...

. A planned Montenegrin leg was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns. During the Croatian leg,

Grigor Dimitrov Grigor Dimitrov Dimitrov (, ; born 16 May 1991) is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP, making him the highest-ranked Bulgari ...

, 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 Cell (biology), cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are ...

, leading to the event being abandoned.

Borna Ćorić Borna Ćorić (; born 14 November 1996) is a Croatian professional tennis player. On 5 November 2018, he reached his best singles ranking of world No. 12. In 2022, Ćorić became the lowest-ranked champion in ATP Tour Masters 1000, Masters 1000 h ...

, Dimitrov's last opponent, tested positive the next day.

Viktor Troicki Viktor Troicki ( sr-Cyrl, Виктор Троицки, ; born 10 February 1986) is a Serbian tennis coach and a former professional player. He won three singles and two doubles titles on the ATP Tour. Troicki won his first ATP singles title at t ...

and Djokovic himself tested positive over the next two days.

Tournament

After the ATP 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 ( , ), corresponding partially with 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 throug ...

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 List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city in Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is the tr ...

, Bosnia and Herzegovina — 3–4 July *

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

, 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 Dominic Thiem (; born 3 September 1993) is an Austrian former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved in March 2020. Thiem won 17 ATP Tour-level s ...

defeated surprise finalist

Filip Krajinović Filip Krajinović (, ; born 27 February 1992) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 26 on 23 April 2018.

in three sets in the first leg. The cancelled final of the second leg was to be between

and

Andrey Rublev Andrey Andreyevich Rublev (; born 20 October 1997) is a Russian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 5 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved in September 2021 ...

Aftermath

It was revealed on 21 June that

tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

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

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

. The announcement by Dimitrov on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

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.

, 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 Goran Ivanišević (; born 13 September 1971) is a Croatian former professional tennis player and current coach. He was ranked world No. 2 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in July 1994. Ivanišević won 22 ATP To ...

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