There are serious ramifications for tennis. As the president of the Association of Tennis Professionals player council for the past four years,Djokovic was recently named the third most influential person in the game - behind Roger Federer and Serena Williams - by a survey in French sports dailyL'Equipe.

Neither is he afraid to mix his hobbies with his governance role. Two years ago,he insisted that the player council listen to a briefing about a mobile pod which - using some combination of cryotherapy and air pressure - was supposed to rejuvenate muscles. Despite Djokovic's best efforts,the idea that the ATP should cart one of these around the world was rejected.

Apart from being against the regulations of certain countries,it was hugely expensive,and sat on the back of a trailer so vast that few events could accommodate it.

Tennis probably gives more decision-making power to its players - who constitute 50 per cent of both the ATP and Women's Tennis Association organisations - than any other sport. Which could be one reason why its politics are always in such a mess.

The vast majority of professionals left school as early as they could. Their livelihoods are based around athleticism. Running a £5 billion sport is something they do in their spare time. It is true that certain players have proved to be visionaries behind the scenes. Think Billie Jean King or Donald Dell. But both were Second World War babies,from an era when you could still go to college before turning pro. Today,their most admirable descendants are people with the intellectual humility to test their ideas and consult the experts.

Djokovic,clearly,is not one of those. As he continues to propound discredited ideas under the catch-all title of"science",you have to wonder if he is the right man to be steering tennis through the COVID-19 crisis.

The Telegraph,London