The Paris Masters 1000 won’t have the defending champion participating in this year’s tournament, which begins next week. Novak Djokovic has decided to withdraw from the event, confirming the news on his Instagram story.
“I have a lot of great memories winning seven titles there and hope to be back with you next year.”
Nole beat Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets in the 2023 final, 6-4, 6-3. Serbian outlet Sportklub reported just days ago that Djokovic may not play in Paris and could be out for the ATP Tour Finals in Turin, too. He’s been focusing on spending time with his family as of late. The Serb will be deducted 1,000 ATP points for missing the Paris Masters and 1,300 more if he doesn’t play in Italy, per The Athletic.
If that does happen, the 24-time Grand Slam winner would drop to No. 8 in the world. It wasn’t a banner year for the standards that Novak Djokovic holds himself to. The veteran didn’t win a single Major and only had one title overall. However, it was a valuable one, winning Olympic Gold for the first time in his career, beating Carlos Alcaraz in the final.
The 37-year-old revealed last week that his competitive edge isn’t the same after both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal retired. The Spaniard called it quits a few weeks ago and Djokovic sent him a heartfelt message on social media after the two enjoyed numerous battles together on the court.
Missing both of these upcoming tournaments would make Djokovic’s road to an 11th Australian Open title a lot more difficult next year. That means if his ranking does drop as much as expected, Nole could face either Jannik Sinner or Alcaraz in the fourth round or the quarterfinals Down Under.
Novak Djokovic isn’t getting any younger and these two are the future. Sinner is currently the top-ranked player on the globe and just had a season for the ages, winning seven titles. He just beat Djokovic in the Shanghai Masters final on October 13, too. As for Alcaraz, he won the Aussie Open, the French Open, and Wimbledon in ’24, three of the four Majors.
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