Dominic Thiem will donate the prize money he won last month in the Adria Tour tournament, interrupted by the appearance of coronavirus cases, announced his father and coach, Wolfgang Thiem, who came out in defense of Novak Djokovic, criticized for organizing this charity competition.
“I don't approve of what happened on the Adriatic tour, but condemn Djokovic and saying he screwed up everything is too cheap for me “Wolfgang Thiem said in an interview with the Viennese newspaper “Die Presse” about strong international criticism of the number one in world tennis.
The newspaper, which this Friday advances the statements that will publish this Saturday in the printed version, remember the scandal unleashed by the positive cases of several tennis players in the regional tournament that was originally planned with three weeks of competitions in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina. But was interrupted on June 22 in the Croatian city of Zadar, the second scale, after knowing the contagion of Grigor Dimitrov, nineteenth in the ATP ranking.
The matches were played with the public and without hygiene measures and physical distance recommended to avoid infections. In addition to hugging in front of the cameras, tournament participants held a party at a Belgrade club. In Thiem Sr.'s opinion, Djokovic did nothing wrong: “Of course the dance at the disco was not optimal, but Djokovic basically did nothing wrong. They just got a little sloppy, they were euphoric. ”
In addition, the father of the Austrian tennis player values the charitable goal of the world's first racket initiative.“I prefer that there be a few more cases of coronavirus and be able to raise a few thousand euros for a childhood cancer clinic”He commented. And advanced that sYour son will announce that he will donate the prize money won in Belgrade for charitable purposes.
Dominic Thiem himself, third in the ATP ranking, has admitted, in statements to the public broadcaster ORF, that the tournament was a “great mistake of all of us. “ “But the most important thing is that we learn from our mistakes,” Thiem said Thursday, shortly after it became known that Djokovic and his wife Jelena tested negative for a new coronavirus test, the first performed since the initial positive test announced on 23 June.
In addition to the Djokovic and Dimitrov marriage, they had given positive also other participants of the Adria Tour, like Croatian Borna Coric, Serbian Victor Troicki and his wife, and two coaches from Djokovic, Marco Panichi and Goran Ivanisevic, as well as that of Dimitrov, Kristijan Groh.