Tennis
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Top-ranked tennis player Novak Djokovic announced Tuesday he and his wife tested positive for the coronavirus after he played in a series of exhibition matches he organized in Serbia and Croatia with zero social distancing amid the pandemic, The Associated Press reports.

Djokovic is the fourth player to come down with COVID-19 after participating in matches held in Belgrade and Zadar, Croatia.

The others were three-time Grand Slam semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric and Viktor Troicki.

“We believed the tournament met all health protocols and the health of our region seemed in good condition to finally unite people for philanthropic reasons,” Djokovic said in a posting on social media Tuesday. “We were wrong and it was too soon.”

The rest of his Adria Tour, which was supposed to head to Bosnia next, was called off.

“Unfortunately, this virus is still present, and it is a new reality that we are still learning to cope and live with. I am hoping things will ease with time so we can all resume lives the way they were,” Djokovic said in a statement released earlier. “I am extremely sorry for each individual case of infection. I hope that it will not complicate anyone's health situation and that everyone will be fine.”

Djokovic, who is not showing symptoms of COVID-19, said he will remain in self-isolation for 14 days.

“It was all born with a philanthropic idea, to direct all raised funds towards people in need and it warmed my heart to see how everybody strongly responded to this,” he said. “We organized the tournament at the moment when the virus has weakened, believing that the conditions for hosting the Tour had been met.”

Djokovic stands third in the history of men's tennis with 17 Grand Slam singles titles. In April, he was criticized for saying he would not want to take a vaccine for the virus in order to be able to compete, even if it were mandatory for travel.

In May, when he was staying in Spain, Djokovic broke local lockdown rules by practicing at a tennis club about a week before it was allowed.

More recently, he complained about the US Tennis Association's plans to try to protect people from the virus during the US Open with such measures as limiting the size of players' entourages, going so far as to say he didn't know whether he would go to the tournament in New York.