ATP Finals – 4 men for 3 places: unknown Novak Djokovic leaves the Masters race open until the end

Six days before the start of the “Masters Tournament”, the sprint towards Turin has still not delivered its final verdict. This is not common. Traditionally, the Masters 1000 at Paris-Bercy was the ultimate judge of the peace, completely determining the identity of the eight lucky winners. And last week at the Rolex Paris Masters, there was indeed a skimming, players like Holger Rune or Grigor Dimitrov – even if the Bulgarian can be a substitute in Turin – seeing their last hopes of qualifying disappear. But the ATP 250s in Metz and Belgrade this week could well have a major role to play.

At this stage, five players are officially qualified: Jannik Sinner – who is also guaranteed to end the year world number 1 –, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz. There are therefore three seeds to be awarded and four candidates, given that each player can only hope to add a maximum of 250 points to their record in the Race: Novak Djokovic, Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev. All can qualify but also be eliminated because between the Serbian and the Russian, first non-qualified, there are currently 190 units. In the event of a title in Metz, Rublev could therefore move ahead of Djokovic, currently 6th.

But for the former world number 1 to be mathematically out of the race, Casper Ruud and Alex de Minaur would also have to supplant him. This scenario is possible if the Australian – who is 165 points behind the “Djoker” – goes for the title in Belgrade and the Norwegian reaches at least one semi-final in Lorraine (100 points collected while he has 55 outlay on the Serbian).

It would therefore take quite a combination of circumstances for Djokovic not to be one of the eight chosen. If he is potentially still slightly “in danger” in the race for the Masters, it is above all because he himself has decided not to play since his final in Shanghai in mid-October. According to the Serbian press, which was the first to announce his withdrawal from Bercy, he even chose to end his season to rest and ideally prepare for the 2025 Australian Open where he hopes to win a 25th Grand Slam title. record, after having had a blank year in the Majors.

So far, Djokovic has not officially confirmed anything. After a few days of vacation in the Maldives which suggested that he had indeed moved on, he was seen in Belgrade. Will he finally give up on Turin? If this were the case, he would thus end the suspense, his absence automatically qualifying Ruud, De Minaur and Rublev who would no longer need to play in Metz and Belgrade. But as things currently stand, they are forced to scrap until the last moment.