Novak Djokovic has stressed he will not be chasing after a spot in this year’s ATP Finals despite winning the end-of-season event more times than any other player.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion told reporters in Belgrade that he is yet to decide on what tournaments will play at the end of this season which could prove critical to his chances of qualifying for Turin. The eight highest-ranked players will qualify for the ATP Finals. Djokovic is currently in ninth place but a deep run at the remaining Masters 1000 events will likely guarantee his spot.
However, the Serbian has no plans to push himself to secure a place. Even though he is the defending champion and is the only player to have won it on seven separate occasions. Since 2007, he failed to qualify for the ATP Finals only once which was in 2017 when he ended his season early due to injury.
“Torino is not my goal at all, to be honest, I am not chasing ATP Finals, I am not chasing the rankings etc,” Tennis Majors quoted Djokovic as saying.
“As far as I am concerned, I am done with those tournaments for my career (smiling). Whether I will play other tournaments this year or in the future, I can’t say right now.
“My main priorities are playing for the national team and Slams, everything else is less important.”
Djokovic is currently playing in the Davis Cup and lost only 15 points during his 6-0, 6-1, win over Greek world No.770 Ionnas Xilas. He will shortly travel to Sofia for an exhibition match against Grigor Dimitrov before heading to the Shanghai Masters in China.
“After that, I am going to see what am I going to do,” he commented on his schedule.
“Usually in my career I used to have my schedule ready six months in advance, but nowadays that’s not the case, now it’s more spontaneous. Firstly, I need to physically, emotionally and mentally rest in order to even start thinking what I want to do next, in what way, how much and where.”
Djokovic is yet to win a title on the ATP Tour but did clinch a gold medal at the Paris Olympics—an accolade he has been chasing after for most of his career. The last time he went an entire season without winning an ATP Tour event was in 2005.
