Wimbledon and the big covid mess

On Monday night, the Wimbledon organization notified Marin Cilic of the positive for covid.

The next morning, Matteo Berrettini, one of the candidates for the final victory, came out, and in parallel, Alize Cornet assured in the newspaper

that he did not understand "psychosis" and that a very fat one could be mounted because during the last Roland Garros "there was an outbreak that nobody talked about".

She added the French that "a good part of the locker room was infected" and that when it was discovered that several "important players had it" it was going to cause a big "fire".

Now, hours later and seeing the effect that her statements had had, the gala collected cable: “I said that I 'suspected' some cases, without having any proof.

It was, above all, to underline that the virus is already part of our lives and that we had to face it.

New paragraph".

This is how the mess began: Wimbledon, covid and individual responsibility, to play or not to play?

The great nebula, because some say they know nothing, others who are not clear, yes but no, and there are those who say they have heard something in the locker room and attribute the final decision to the player.

The tournament confirms the latter, then it falls to the tennis player to take the test, communicate or not if he has tested positive and ultimately choose whether he competes or not in the event that the coronavirus has caught him.

Berrettini and Cilic, worn out, chose to disappear from the table.

It was especially significant for the Italian, who had landed in London after winning Stuttgart and Queen's, and who was aiming very high because, in fact, last year he reached the final of the

.

More information

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“Have they done a test?

But if they don't do tests anymore, right? ”, Paula Badosa wondered, without knowing the Catalan – faced this Thursday with Irina Bara (60th in the world) – that her teammates had said goodbye to the tournament.

“Am I worried about this?

No, because I have passed all the covid that exists and of all colors, so between the vaccine and everything else I think I am more than safe.

In the afternoon Rafael Nadal took the floor, who was given a good push by the virus in December and who, like so many others, was not quite clear on it.

"If you test positive, you're out," said the Balearic, quoted today (around 4:00 p.m., Movistar Deportes) with Ricardas Berankis (106th).

“That is the information that I had a few days ago, but it was incorrect because an ATP physio told me.

I don't know what the real information is, I don't know if the protocol has been communicated to me.

Maybe it has been communicated to us and it has happened to me”, said the Mallorcan, who, in any case, considers that tennis players should not intervene in protocol issues: “We are not prepared to make those decisions.

We are tennis players, not health specialists.

Those who are prepared have to take those measures.

We can all have an opinion on everything,

Bautista: “I think I would play”

After canceling the tournament in 2020 – for the first time since World War II – and shaping a decaffeinated edition a year ago, conditioned by restrictions, Wimbledon has returned to normal in 2022.

Players, their teams, tournament staff and journalists are free to move around the All England Club Tennis & Croquet Club facilities.

The great British follows the guidelines of the Government, which in July 2021 eliminated all limitations and delegated the individual responsibility of citizens when fighting covid.

A layout that Roberto Bautista particularly likes.

"I think it's perfect that the organization allows the player to decide based on how he feels," slides the player from Castellón, who will face Daniel Galán this Thursday.

“It seems that this coronavirus thing has passed or is practically parked.

If I had it… I don't know, but I've played many times with a fever or sick.

I think I would play, although with precautions for the rest of the players, ”he continues, admitting that he has not received any coordination on what should be done or not in London.

Previously, in Paris the rule was clear.

As this newspaper has been able to confirm, due to the specifications of the French Federation (FFT) and French law, tennis players could not be forced to take the tests;

yes, in the event that any of them had tested positive, they should have notified the Roland Garros organization immediately.

Individual responsibility... and collective

“I don't remember cases, I don't have that information.

I hope not to see myself in that situation, but I will act in the most responsible way possible, ”says Nadal, who two years ago gave up traveling to the US Open, considering that there were not enough health guarantees.

“I don't want to underestimate the effect of covid, but there are tournaments in which many players get food poisoning, but we are not going to make a protocol for that.

We have been with the virus for a long time, there are vaccines... If we go back to how we were a few months ago, I will stop playing, ”explained the French Cornet.

Meanwhile, doubts continue in London and Wimbledon is confident that the cases of Cilic and Berrettini will be isolated.

“I understand that you can compete, I heard it before the game in the physio room;

If you catch covid you can compete, they don't kick you out of the tournament like they used to.

I have heard it from a player.

Apparently Berrettini and Cilic were unwell and surely they will be screwed.

We must be careful so that it does not spread throughout the tournament”, warned Feliciano López, who later admitted: “I don't really know the rule, if they could play or not, but I think things are going well.

As far as I know, there haven't been many cases in tournaments.

I don't think there have been any strange things and that the players have covered it up”.

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