Tennis: the Covid-19 invites itself in Roland-Garros qualifications
Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, here in June in Belgrade, was excluded from Roland-Garros, because of a positive test from his trainer for Covid-19.
Andrej ISAKOVIC / AFP
Text by: Eric Mamruth
2 min
6 days before the kickoff of the Roland-Garros tennis tournament next Sunday, a Grand Slam postponed this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the qualifying event to join the final table began on September 21 2020 at the Stade de la porte d'Auteuil.
The health protocol in force for the players and their entourage is very strict and it has already claimed five victims.
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Five players were excluded from the qualifying tournament.
Two of them tested positive for Covid-19.
For the other three, it was their coach who tested positive.
They are therefore contact cases and the consequence is therefore implacable: it is the prohibition to take part in the tournament, without even having the possibility of taking a second test to check the reliability of the first.
This is what deplores Petar Popovich, the coach of one of the excluded players, the Bosnian Damir Dzumhur.
He challenges their sidelining because in fact his test is on the borderline between positive and negative.
It is common in people who have previously been affected by the coronavirus.
Petar Popovic got it in July.
Since then, he has passed around 20 tests, all negative.
Except, therefore, this one, which involved a part of uncertainty.
But the tournament's medical service was adamant.
No new test.
A very strict health protocol
The health protocol is therefore very strict for the players and their entourage: two tests to be passed before the first match then another every five days during the tournament.
Another constraint: confinement to the hotel with only travel allowed to the stadium and the training ground.
All this in the hope that the virus does not fall through the cracks.
In short, this 2020 edition, already very special, will take place with an additional small ball in the stomach for the participants.
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