前印度名将谈乔帅事件 “他有点没常识”
2020/07/02 10:19
乔科维奇举办慈善赛事，自己却中了武汉肺炎。（资料照，路透社）
〔体育中心／综合报导〕绰号乔帅的网球男单球王乔科维奇，在举办亚德里亚慈善巡回赛
后感染武汉肺炎（新型冠状病毒病，COVID-19），对此印度名将、前ATP球员理事会主席
维杰（Vijay Amritraj）告诉路透社的记者，他认为乔帅应该要有点常识。
在该场巡回赛后确诊的选手除了乔帅外，还有2017年ATP年终赛冠军的迪米特洛夫（Grigo
r Dimitrov）、丘里奇（Borna Coric）和楚易基（Viktor Troicki）等人。多位选手确
诊，也让身为主办人的乔科维奇受到了严厉的舆论批评。
维杰认为，乔帅身为世界球王，想举行慈善赛事“绝对是正确的”，也遵守当地政府的规
范运作，但他仍然该要付出更多心力与准备来确保所有人的健康安全。
维杰认为乔帅这场慈善赛事衍生出的灾难证明，球场里挤满了观众，社交距离与口罩会变
得毫无效果，也证明停赛五个月后将在八月开始举办的ATP赛事，应该要禁止观众入场。
“我们没办法在球场里听到观众的鼓掌声，这显然会对球员产生影响。”维杰补充道：“
但我想这是球员必须去适应的。”
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)