A tennis club in Spain has come forward and apologized on behalf of Novak Djokovic after the Serbian was filmed training in courts despite restrictions put in place by the Spanish government. The Puente Romano Marbella Tennis Club in a statement revealed it had mistakenly allowed the World No 1 men’s player to enter the court and train. In a video on his Instagram account, Djokovic self-recorded himself training in the tennis after clearly violating the rules amid the coronavirus pandemic crisis. In the video, the Serb was seen exchanging a few shots with another man in the Marbella tennis court. Novak Djokovic Breaks Lockdown Rules in Spain, Filmed Practising on Tennis Court Despite Restrictions.

“We are 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. “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 11 May to use the tennis club,” it added.

“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.”

The Spanish tennis federation also later released a statement to clarify that players were not allowed to return to tennis courts until May 11 but were allowed to pursue individual training outside their homes.

The Spanish government had, on Monday, eased the stringent lockdown measures in the country and had given permission for athletes to train individually. All professional athletes were authorised to train from May 4 but the federation is yet to draw on a decision on training inside courts.

Spain has been one of the hardest-hit countries most affected by the pandemic with over 25, 000 deaths and a total count of 250, 651 people affected so far by the deadly pandemic. But with the death count slowly decreasing, the government is gradually easing it stringent measures on lockdown.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 06, 2020 05:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).