Cameron Norrie has described Novak Djokovic’s qualification for the prestigious ATP Finals as ‘a bit strange’ following his opening win at the Paris Masters on Monday.
Djokovic has secured entry into the season-ending event through his win at Wimbledon where he claimed his 21st major title. Even though he is currently not in the top eight in the race for Turin, the ATP rulebook states that if a player wins a major title during the season and is in the top 20, they will receive a qualifying spot. If there were two or more players in this situation, only the highest ranked would qualify.
However, Norrie has questioned the fairness of the rule due to the circumstances at this year’s Wimbledon. For the first time in history, players were not allocated ranking points after the ATP decided to remove the system in response to the ban of Russian and Belarusian players participating due to the war in Ukraine.
The British No.1 would have received 720 points for his run to the Wimbledon semi-finals if the points system was in effect. Meanwhile, runner-up Nick Kyrgios would have received 1200 points. Something which would have significantly boosted both players’ ranking.
“Novak obviously qualified from Wimbledon so that seems a bit strange,” said Norrie.
“I don’t know if that was the rule before or not, but it seems unfair, I guess for Nick Kyrgios as well.
“He lost in the final and he gets nothing. I knew that I hadn’t had the points all along, but I was still in with a pretty decent chance I thought.”
The ATP Finals Grand Slam champion rule has been in effect for a long time and wasn’t implemented this year. Meanwhile, Djokovic might secure enough points to qualify for the finals regardless of the rule at this week’s Paris Masters.
During an interview with The Daily Mail, Kyrgios’ agent Stuart Duguid said Djokovic deserves his place in the season-ending event. Although he believes it is ‘arbitrary’ that the Serbian is the only player to have benefitted at Wimbledon.
“it feels arbitrary that he is the only player to benefit from his performances at Wimbledon,” he said.
“Players’ endorsement contracts are affected by their year-end ranking and whether or not they qualify for the Finals. Many, such as Nick, will be out of pocket, whereas Novak has been made whole.’
Kyrgiops himself has also lamented his exclusion from the singles event in Turin. Although he has qualified for the doubles tournament alongside Thanasi Kokkinakis.
“Should of (sic) been in singles as well [but] no points at Wimbledon,” he wrote on Instagram.
In response to the comments, an ATP spokesman told Eurosport that the decision to remove points from Wimbledon was done on the ‘basis of fairness to all players’ and added that no other rule changes were made at the time.
The ATP Finals will begin on November 13th. Djokovic will be seeking to win the title for a record-equalling sixth time in his career.
