Belgrade (AFP)
The Montenegrin component of the "Adria Tour", the series of charity tournaments organized by Novak Djokovic in the Balkans, has been canceled, the organizers announced on Saturday.
"The fact that the citizens of Serbia are not on the list of health authorities (Montenegrins) and therefore cannot travel to Montenegro is an insurmountable obstacle," the organizers said in a statement.
Montenegro has reopened its borders since June 1 for countries with less than 25 people infected with coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants. The list of these countries is updated regularly but Serbia is still not included.
The "Adria tour" started on Saturday in Belgrade with the participation of big tennis stars, including Dominic Thiem (N.3), Alexander Zverev (N.7) and Grigor Dimitrov (N.19) who joined the number a world leader, the Serbian Novak Djokovic.
He was to stop in Montenegro the weekend of June 27 and 28.
On June 20 and 21, the tournament will be held in Zadar, on the Croatian Adriatic coast, where "Nole" and his colleagues will be joined by two Croatian tennis stars Marin Cilic (N. 37), winner of the US Open in 2014 , and Borna Coric (N. 33).
The tournament will also pass through Bosnia on July 3 and 4 in Banja Luka (northwest) before ending on July 5 with an exhibition match in Sarajevo between Bosnian number one Damir Dzumhur (N. 107) and Novak Djokovic.
The Balkan countries have been relatively spared from the Covid-19 pandemic and have recorded less than 25,000 cases and less than 800 deaths in a region of some 22 million people.
© 2020 AFP