2024 ATP Finals: The eight Turin qualifiers are set as Novak Djokovic withdraws

Ewan West 05 Nov 2024 12:54 PM

Novak Djokovic, Andrey Rublev, Casper Ruud and Alex de Minaur

The eight-player field for the 2024 ATP Finals in Turin is now complete after Novak Djokovic withdrew from the event.

Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev have all qualified, joining Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz.

Prior to this week, Sinner, Zverev, Alcaraz, Medvedev and Fritz had all sealed their spots at the ATP Finals, which will begin on Sunday.

Ruud, de Minaur and Rublev, however, have all entered ATP 250 tournaments this week as their places were not assured before Djokovic’s withdrawal.

Djokovic occupies sixth place in the live Race to Turin rankings, which means one of Ruud, de Minaur or Rublev would have likely missed out had the Serbian competed.

There was a scenario where Ruud, de Minaur and Rublev — who sit seventh, eighth and ninth in the Race respectively — could have all overtaken Djokovic and left him outside of the eight qualification spots based on their results this week. That appeared unlikely, though.

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Ruud and Rublev are in the Metz draw, while de Minaur is in Belgrade, and it remains to be seen whether any of the trio will now pull out of the events.

The ATP Finals will run from Sunday November 10 to Sunday November 17, leaving any qualifiers competing this week with little recovery time.

Sinner, Zverev, Alcaraz, Medvedev and Rublev all featured at the 2023 ATP Finals, while Ruud played in 2021 and 2022 and Fritz made his only previous appearance in 2022.

De Minaur will, therefore, be the only player at this year’s edition making his debut at the year-end championships.

Grigor Dimitrov and Stefanos Tsitsipas, who are 10th and 11th in the Race, will be the first and second alternates respectively.

Djokovic, who also withdrew from last week’s Paris Masters, announced he would not defend the title he won in Turin last year due to an “ongoing injury.”

“It’s quite an honour to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin,” the tennis legend wrote on social media.

“I was really looking forward to being there, but due to ongoing injury I won’t be playing next week.

“Apologies to those who were planning to see me. Wishing all the players a great tournament. See you soon!”

The 37-year-old, who underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee in June, has not revealed the nature of his injury.