Spain's tennis club apologises for letting Djokovic train

Bengaluru, May 6: The tennis club in the coastal city of Marbella, where Novak Djokovic reportedly broke confinement rules in Spain, has admitted that it mistakenly allowed the Serbian ace to practice and apologised for the error.

The ATP world No.1 had published a video of him training in apparent violation of Spain's current rules amidst the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The video posted on Instagram showed Djokovic exchanging shots with another man at the club, where the 32-year-old has been staying for the past several weeks.

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Здраво добри људи. Узбуђен сам што могу да поделим са вама вест да сутра у 18 часова почињемо са серијалом разговора на српском језику. Биће врло интересантних саговорника са различитим темама попут: здравља, спорта, историје, науке и Николе Тесле, древних знања и духовности. Саговорник у првој епизоди “Свесног живљења” ће бити Жарко Илић. Жарко је лекар, учитељ реикија (природне технике исцељивања), а пре свега, он је трагалац за одговорима и лековима за спречавање болести савременог доба. Жарко је мој дугогодишњи пријатељ и један од животних водича. Захвалан сам на томе што ћу имати прилику да пред вама са Жарком разговарам на тему менталног, емотивног, духовног и физичког здравља. Придружите нам се сутра у 18 часова. Видимо се 😃 @zarko.ilic #свесноживљење

A post shared by Novak Djokovic (@djokernole) on May 3, 2020 at 2:48pm PDT

Djokovic filmed the video while hitting shots and wrote he was 'so happy to play on clay .. well, just for a bit with my phone in the hands.'

Novak Djokovic appears to break lockdown rules in Spain Novak Djokovic appears to break lockdown rules in Spain

Spain has eased some of the lockdown measures that had been in place since mid-March, allowing professional athletes to return to practice, but most training centres and sports facilities must remain closed until next week.

"We're sorry that our interpretation of the regulation could have been erroneous, and this could have inconvenienced Mr. Djokovic or any other citizen acting in good faith," the Puente Romano Marbella Tennis Club said in a statement.

The statement, which was relayed by Djokovic's management team, said the club received a request from the player to practice and gave him the go-ahead with the "understanding that from May 4 all professional sports players were authorised to train."

The club said it therefore believed he was "permitted to train in our facilities." It said it later received a "clarification" from the Spanish tennis federation and "both parties have agreed that training should resume" only next week.

Rafael Nadal said he also went to train on a court this week, but he did it on private property because the rules were not fully clear to him.

Football players were among the exceptions who could start training inside sports facilities beginning this week with La Liga players getting ready to train indoors.

Coronavirus in sport: La Liga clubs to resume training this week Coronavirus in sport: La Liga clubs to resume training this week

Spain has been one of the countries most affected by the pandemic but it started loosening some of its restrictions as the number of confirmed cases started to go down.

(With inputs from Agencies)