The two groups of the Adria Tour have been drawn today during an opening ceremony. The first leg of the tournament organized by this year’s Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic will be held from 13 to 14 June in Belgrade. The tournament will be played in a round-robin format. The matches will be played in a Fast 4 Format in best of three sets and first to four games to win the set. The matches will be played in a day session and a night session.
On the first day four matches will be held during each session.
Djokovic has been drawn with 2018 ATP Tour champion Alexander Zverev and his compatriots Filip Krajnovic and Viktor Troicki in the Group A. Dominic Thiem, who finished runner-up to Djokovic in last January’s Australian Open final, will face 2017 ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov, Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic and Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur. The winners of the two groups will play in the final on Sunday.
“There is a great interest for the players, who have come to Serbia to play this tournament. I am honoured to have the chance to meet them in Belgrade”, said Djokovic.
Djokovic, Zverev, Thiem and Dimitrov attended the press conference held in a relaxed atmosphere, where business was back to normal and social distancing was nonexistent.
“It’s definitely different circumstances. We all can feel that, even though we have different measures in Serbia than in the United States or in the UK. It’s very difficult to speak about international standard. What is the international standard ? Nobody knows, really. It’s more a regional approach to see which countries allow these kind of events, because they have been dealing with better numbers, maybe compared to some other countries. We have had pretty decent success with the coronavirus. Of course, a lot of lives have been lost, and this is horrible to see, here and also worldwide, but life goes on, and I think we as athletes are looking forward to play and compete, and the whole idea of this Adria Tour originated with a thought of how we could put together something like this. The tournament is a positive message. Of course, you can see it from all different angles. You can also criticize, you can also say that this is maybe dangerous or not. It’s not to me to make the calls, what is health-wise right or wrong. We are just following what the government of Serbia is telling us. If we have the opportunity to gather like this, we will use the opportunity. Hopefully, we will be able to go back on tour very soon”, said Djokovic.
Zverev spent two months in the United States after the season was interrupted. Since then he has travelled to Germany, Monte-Carlo and Serbia.
“For me, the most surprising, but the nicest thing to see is that life really goes on. We were in restaurants with live music. People here were not afraid like they are maybe in other countries. This is nice to see”, said Zverev.
Thiem agrees with Djokovic’s opinion about the restrictions that could be imposed at the US Open.
“I think some circumstances would have to change to go there. We will have to wait until the facts are out and decide”, said Thiem.
Dimitrov is enthusiastic about taking part in the Adria Tour.
“The last time I played here dates back to ten years ago for a junior tournament. I think it’s a fantastic initiative. It’s incredible thta Novak created this tournament. We love competing one against each other, although tournaments are held in different circumstances. We are looking forward to returning to the court. Our enthusiasm is growing. It didn’t take that much convincing on my end”, said Dimitrov.
