Novak Djokovic announces withdrawal from Paris Masters, leaving 2024 year-end status unclear

Seven-time champion Novak Djokovic won't be competing at the final ATP Masters 1000 event of the year, the Rolex Paris Masters, he announced Wednesday on social media.

"Unfortunately I won't be playing [at the Paris Indoors] this year. Sorry to everyone who was hoping to see me play there," Djokovic, who won a record-extending seventh title at the Accor Arena last fall, wrote in an Instagram story. "Wishing all the players, sponsors, organizers and fans a great tournament.

"I have a lot of great memories winning seven titles there and hope to be back with you next year."

The 24-time Grand Slam singles champion was most recently on court at the Six Kings Slam exhibition event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last week, where he lost to Jannik Sinner in the semifinals of the $6 million event but defeated the soon-to-be retiring Rafael Nadal to close the book on their legendary on-court rivalry.

But his latest comments leave his status for the rest of the 2024 season unclear.

The Serb is currently sixth in the race to qualifying for the year-end championships in Turin, Italy, having vaulted himself into qualifying position for a 17th time by reaching the final at the Shanghai Rolex Masters in China earlier this month. But with chasing players, including Casper Ruud, Andrey Rublev, Alex de Minaur and Grigor Dimitrov, all consistently playing in the season's late weeks, Djokovic's qualification remains far from a sure bet.

The 37-year-old has posted a 37-9 record this season, including winning a long-chased gold medal at the Paris Olympics, and is currently No. 4 in the ATP rankings. But he admitted at Roland Garros in the spring, a tournament cut short for him due to a knee injury, that he was most motivated at this stage of his career to play Grand Slam tournaments and for his country.

"It's true that I'm focused pretty much solely on Grand Slams and Olympics this year and playing for my country, really. That's something that really drives me the most today," he said.

"The other tournaments, it's not maybe sounding right, but these are huge tournaments, very important tournaments, tournaments that are part of the ATP Tour that I was part of and still am part of for so many years, and have been integral to my career and my success.

"But yeah, it is becoming a little bit more challenging for me to push myself every single tournament to be really at the top."

The Rolex Paris Masters begins on Oct. 28, and world No. 1 Sinner and world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz are both expected to play.