The world number one decided to pull out citing family reasons.
Novak Djokovic is the latest player to withdraw from the first Masters 1000 series of the season. Usually the season would begin in Indian Wells before moving on to Miami but due to Covid the BNP Parisbas will be rescheduled at a later date.
Djokovic took to social media to announce his withdrawl from the tournament.
A big sticking point for most players is the fact due to the pandemic the tournaments have slashed prize money almost to a bare minimum. John Isner came out recently saying he was not happy with the way the ATP was handling the pandemic saying executives were still getting their regular pay but players prize money would be cut.
It’s the first time in a while the big three will not play with both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer opting out and adding to the long list of players not traveling to the sunshine state.
Below is the list so far of all the players who have pulled out of the tournament so far with play scheduled to start on March 23 at the Hard Rock Stadium home of the Miami Dolphins the NFL football team.
Another big issue that has caused issues are the fact the ATP has decided to use a frozen ranking system making it even harder for players to move up the rankings.
Andrey Rublev spoke this week in Dubai saying if it wasn’t for the frozen system he would be number four in the world right now. We will have to wait and see if more players pull out because it seems more players are adapting their schedule to play less stating playing every tournament in a bubble environment is tough on them mentally and physically.
