Novak Djokovic has pulled out of the season-ending ATP Finals due to injury and confirmed his decision in an Instagram post on Tuesday.
The seven-time winner and defending champion, 37, posted: “I really wanted to be there but due to an ongoing injury I won’t be able to play next week.
“Sorry to those who were planning to see me. I hope everyone has a great tournament. See you soon!”
Djokovic won the first of his seven ATP finals in 2008, beating world No. 1 Jannik Sinner in last year’s final.
Djokovic defeated Sinner 6-3, having previously lost to the Italian in the round-robin portion of the previous tournament.
The ATP Finals will be broadcast live from November 10th to 17th. sky sportsThe world’s top eight male athletes will compete in Turin, Italy.
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Highlights from the Paris Masters final between Alexander Zverev and Ugo Humbert
Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz have reserved their spots. The remaining three spots will be filled by Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev, with Grigor Dimitrov and Stefanos Tsitsipas likely to be named as replacements.
British number one Jack Draper started the Paris Masters ranked 14th and had an outside chance of qualifying for Turin, but only a third-round exit to De Minaur ended those chances.
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Highlights of the Paris Masters third round match between Alex de Minaur and British No. 1 Jack Draper
Djokovic also withdrew from Paris, which he won on Sunday against world No. 2 Zverev.
The Serb’s absence in Turin means the record 24-time Grand Slam champion will end the year with Paris 2024 Olympic gold becoming his only title.
What is the format of the ATP Finals?
The ATP Finals will be played in a round robin format, with eight players divided into two groups of four. The eight seeds are determined by the ATP Race To Turin rankings, held on the Monday after the last ATP Tour tournament of the year.
All singles matches are played in best of three tie-break sets, including the final.
The top seeded player will be placed in Group A and the second seeded player will be placed in Group B. Players seeded 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 will be drawn in pairs with the first draw placed in Group A. Each player plays. The other three players in his group.
The winner of each group (with the best overall record) will be placed in a separate semi-final bracket, with the top player from Group A becoming the runner-up from Group B and vice versa.
If two or more players are tied after round robin play, a tiebreaking procedure will be used to break the tie and the final ranking of each group will be determined by the first of the following methods: a) Maximum number of wins; b) Most matches played; c) Head-to-head result if only two players are tied; d) If three players are tied, the player who has played fewer games in all three games is automatically eliminated. Or the highest percentage.
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