World number one in Tennis Novak Djokovic is amongst the ATP players critical of a decision to bar Guido Pella and Hugo Dellien from the relocated Cincinnati Masters after their fitness trainer tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19), ESPN reported Friday.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Tennis player Andy Murray also spoke out, saying players hadn’t been given clear suitable guidelines for such situations.
Neither Argentina’s Pella nor Bolivian Dellien has tested positive for coronavirus since their fitness trainer Juan Manuel Galvan tested positive on last Monday.
But administrators from the tournament, which is being held at Flushing Meadows in New York as a warm-up for the US Open there, discussed US Open medical staff and the New York City Department of Health and sent the pair into quarantine.
“On a Zoom call a few weeks ago we got information from the chief medical doctor of the USTA that if a player is not sharing a room with his coach, or his physio, or anyone from his team that is infected, and his (own) results are negative, he can still compete in the tournament,” ESPN quoted Djokovic as saying in a video news conference with reporters covering the event.
The Serb star told the call, attended by dozens of ATP players, was assumed to inform them of the health and safety protocols and procedures that would apply over the two-event period.
