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The organisers of the Paris Masters tournament announced that defending champion Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the competition on Wednesday, October 23. However, they didn't disclose the reason behind Djokovic's withdrawal. The 37-year-old had participated in the Six Kings Slam event last week, where he lost to Jannik Sinner in the semi-final, but was successful in defeating Rafael Nadal. In addition to his 24 Grand Slam victories, the 37-year-old is the reigning champion in Paris, and has won a record 40 Masters Series 1000 titles in his illustrious career.
With several players still eligible to get ahead of him to make the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin next month , Djokovic is currently sixth in the race for the eight-man field event with a decent chance to advance to the event. In his recent post on social media, the tennis icon said, "Sorry to everyone who was hoping to see me play there. “I have a lot of great memories of winning seven titles there and hope to be back with you next year."
2024: A year of challenges for Novak Djokovic
In the year 2024, Novak Djokovic secured only one title, the Olympic gold medal in August in Paris. This was his 99th career title. His hopes of Grand Slam dominance titles were crushed by the likes of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. While Sinner successfully claimed US and Australian Open titles, taking away Djokovic's world number one ranking, the Serbian faced defeat against Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final after the latter's French Open success.
This will be the first time since 2017 that Djokovic will finish the season without winning any Grand Slam title. However, he aims to qualify for the season-ending ATP finals next month. The tennis icon acknowledged that he was most driven to compete in Grand Slam events and for his nation at this point in his career during the spring Roland Garros tournament, which was cut short by a knee injury.
"It's true that I'm focused pretty much solely on Grand Slams and Olympics this year and playing for my country. That's something that drives me the most today," he said. Djokovic mentioned that he isn't driven by any goal to join Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer to win 100 titles. He thinks he achieved many of his career goals, and remarked, "Right now, it's really about Slams and about still seeing how far I can kind of push the bar for myself." The Rolex Paris Masters begins on Oct. 28, and world number one Jannik Sinner and world number two Carlos Alcaraz are expected to participate.
