Novak Djokovic could begin the new season ranked outside the top five which could have big implications on his Australian Open campaign in January.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion will drop 1000 ranking points on November 4th as a result of his decision not to play in next week’s Paris Masters which he won in 2023. Djokovic issued a statement on Wednesday confirming he will not be playing in the final Masters event of the season following a report from SportKlub. He has won the tournament seven times and has a win-loss record of 50-9, winning 18 out of the last 19 matches he has played there.
“Unfortunately I won’t be playing the Paris Masters this year,” Djokovic posted on social media.
“I have a lot of great memories, winning seven titles and I hope to be back with you next year. Sorry to everyone who was hoping to see me there.”
There has been no comment from Djokovic or his camp regarding his reason for not playing in the tournament. He has been managing a knee issue throughout the year but has also said he intends to play a more streamlined schedule with his priority being on the Grand Slam tournaments.
“He is the defending champion – but he is 37 years old if I am not mistaken,” tournament director Cedric Pioline told Eurosport France.
“He has had a complicated year physically since he had a meniscus operation just before Wimbledon. He won the Olympic Games, it is his only title but that was the objective, so objective achieved.
“I think he has reached a stage in his career where he manages his schedule as his body asks him to manage it.”
The implications of Djokovic skipping Paris is that he faces not qualifying for the ATP Finals in Turin which features the eight highest-ranked players based on their points tally over the past 52 weeks. He is currently in sixth place but could get overtaken in the coming days. If he fails to qualify, it will be only the second time he has done so since 2007. He also didn’t make the cut in 2017 after ending his season early due to injury.
However, if Djokovic does qualify this year, he is yet to commit to playing even though he is the defending champion. Should he not play the event, he will lose an additional 1300 points. This would put him into roughly eighth place but a specific position is impossible to predict as it depends on the results of others on the Tour.
The downside of such a drop is that it increases the likelihood of Djokovic having to play a top-two player at an earlier stage at the Australian Open. For example, if he enters the draw as the eighth seed, he could play either Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals.
Djokovic is yet to comment on his plans for the rest of 2024. He has won 37 out of 46 Tour-level matches played so far this year with his only title triumph being at the Paris Olympic Games.
