Home » Berrettini is Covid positive: what would Novak Djokovic have done in his place?

“With a broken heart I announce that I am forced to forfeit the Wimbledon tournament. I have tested positive for Covid-19. I have mild symptoms and will be isolated for the next few days. The symptoms were not heavy, but I tested further to protect the health of my opponents and for everyone around me.

I have no words to describe the disappointment I feel at this moment.” Roman tennis player Matteo Berrettini announced on his social media that he is Covid positive, a disease that consequently forces him to miss the Wimbledon tournament.

After a three-month stop due to injury Matteo had recently made a great comeback with wins in Stuttgart and Queen’s and arrived here at Wimbledon with great possibilities. Novak Djokovic is at his worst in years, Rafa Nadal has won in Australia and Paris, but has not won on grass since as far back as 2010.

Medvedev and all the Russian and Belarusian athletes are not present in this increasingly ‘severed’ Wimbledon and Berrettini had the biggest chance of his career this year.

An ethical choice that causes debate

What does Matteo credit is the fact that, as announced by the tennis player himself on social media, the swabbing was entirely voluntary.

Berrettini experienced mild symptoms in the last few days and decided to take the swab right away, but it was his own choice. In England, in fact, there is no longer any restriction regarding Covid: no mandatory swabbing on departure and arrival, no mandatory use of a mask, and no mandatory vaccination.

This is precisely why Novak Djokovic, unlike the Australian Open and probably the Us Open, can participate in this tournament. On social media there are those who speak of overzealousness, those who extol it as a gesture of altruism, but there are many who wonder what Rafa Nadal and especially Novak Djokovic would have done in Matteo’s place.

Let’s speak clearly, if I have mild symptoms I have an ethical obligation to To preserve my health and the health of those around me, AT ALL COSTS! Now the social world is rising up and has recalled in the last few hours an important episode.

At the beginning of the year, former world number one Novak Djokovic, in addition to the numerous controversies about the vaccine and the querelle against the organizers of the Australian Open, admitted that he did an interview with a journalist from L’Equipe despite being Covid positive.

Nole was positive and did an interview knowingly, a choice that created discussion and much controversy. Now the social world is divided and wondering: what would Novak Djokovic have done in his place? Meanwhile, Nole in the last few days has been training with Marin Cilic and Matthew and both are positive; there is curiosity about his condition and whether indeed the Serb will perform the swab or move on.

No one wants to question his good intentions, but would the Serbian champion, an avowed no vax and a tennis player reluctant to believe in Covid, a virus that has been creating mischief around the world for more than two years, agree to put himself at risk at Wimbledon to preserve his own and others’ health? Of course, the doubt, though small, remains in everyone’s mind, especially after that precedent. No one has the certainty of what would have happened and so ‘To posterity be the judge’