Novak Djokovic Has COVID-19

Great tennis player, but maybe not the best guy to get COVID-19 advice from.Marko Dimic/Xinhua/ZUMA

Novak Djokovic, the #1 tennis player in the world, has tested positive for COVID-19 after playing in a tournament in Croatia. Does this mean it’s still unsafe to hold tennis tournaments? Maybe, but then again:

During the tour, Djokovic and his guests had done all sorts of things that were normal before a global pandemic and completely cringe-inducing in the middle of one. They embraced at the net after matches. They played pickup basketball. They partied in a Belgrade nightclub, where videos show them limbo dancing, occasionally without shirts on and never wearing a mask.

Nick Kyrgios, the Australian hothead who’s constantly getting grief for his antics on court, responded quickly:

Prayers up to all the players that have contracted Covid – 19. Don’t @ me for anything I’ve done that has been ‘irresponsible’ or classified as ‘stupidity’ – this takes the cake. https://t.co/lVligELgID

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) June 23, 2020

I think the bottom line here is that if normal precautions are taken and you don’t act like an idiot, tennis tournaments are probably pretty safe. But I guess we’ll find out in five weeks when New York hosts the world’s biggest tennis tournament.

POSTSCRIPT: I do, however, have a gripe about the Journal’s suggestion that Djokovic endangered himself by not wearing a mask. I see this all the time and it’s not true. Djokovic endangered everyone else by not wearing a mask.

Now, if the article had stated that Djokovic endangered himself by going to nightclubs where other people weren’t wearing masks—which is pretty likely, right?—that would have been completely correct.