The Puente Romano tennis club in Marbella where Novak Djokovic practiced on Monday has issued a clarification that the world No 1 had permission to do so and had not flouted rules of Spain’s lockdown, Reuters reported.
Djokovic shared a video on his Instagram handle of his practice session on Monday, the first day athletes were allowed to return to individual training in over a month.
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But the Spanish tennis federation later released a statement to clarify that tennis players were not allowed to return to courts until May 11, and were only permitted to conduct individual training outside.
“We understood that professional athletes were able to train and authorised Mr Djokovic to use our facilities. After speaking with the tennis federation, they made it clear to us he had to wait until May 11 to use the tennis club,” said the Puente Romano statement.
“We shared this clarification with Mr Djokovic and both parties have agreed to restart training from that day. We regret that our misinterpretation of the rules may have inconvenienced Mr Djokovic in good faith.”