ATP Finals Race to Turin: Record-holder Novak Djokovic faces an uphill battle to qualify

Novak Djokovic has won the last two editions of the ATP Finals, but he has a mountain to climb if he is to qualify for this year’s event in Turin.

The 24-time Grand Slam winner is the record holder in terms of number of season-ending titles won as he moved ahead of Roger Federer when he won his sixth title in 2023 while he has featured at the last six editions.

In fact, since making his debut at the ATP Finals in 2007, Djokovic has failed to qualify only once and that was in 2017 when he missed the second half of the season due to an elbow injury.

But six months into the 2024 campaign and the tennis greats finds himself in a spot of bother in the rankings as he is not only outside the eight, but his injury-enforced absence could see him drop further behind the front-runners.

Djokovic is currently 10th in the ATP Race to Turin with 1,860 points and under normal circumstances that would not be a concern as there are still several big tournaments left in the year.

However, the 2024 season has been anything but normal for the 37-year-old as he has failed to win a title so far this year while he is also expected to miss Wimbledon after undergoing surgery on his knee.

WTA Finals Race to Riyadh post-French Open: No 1 Iga Swiatek already qualified

How Jannik Sinner can emulate Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray with feat that eluded Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal

The 11 ATP players with the most grass-court titles: Roger Federer top, Novak Djokovic joint-fifth

As things stand, Djokovic will most likely have his work cut out for him during the North American hard-court swing, the Asian swing and the end-of-season indoor campaign.

Rublev is currently the man in eighth place and he is not too far ahead of Djokovic as he sits on 2,200 points with Stefanos Tsitsipas in seventh on 2,465 points.

Those gaps, though, will only get bigger over the next few weeks, especially if the Serbian doesn’t play at Wimbledon.

But you can never write Djokovic off as he might only need a deep run at the US Open and/or win an ATP Masters 1000 event (there are still four left on the calendar this year).

Last year Holger Rune qualified in eighth place with 3,460 points while the previous year Taylor Fritz was the last man to book his spot with 2,955 points.

As for those at the front of the queue, new world No 1 Jannik Sinner remains on course to qualify for the ATP Finals outright for the second time in his career as he leads the way in the ATP Race to Turin rankings following his impressive start to the year.

The Italian, who finished runner-up to Djokovic in November last year, has three titles to his name in 2024 as he won the Australian Open, Rotterdam Open and Miami Open.

Sinner has 5,300 points, which gives him a 915-point lead over Alexander Zverev with French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz another 485 points adrift in third place.

The top three are followed by Casper Ruud, Daniil Medvedev, Alex de Minaur, Tsitsipas and Rublev. Grigor Dimitrov is currently the first alternate with Djokovic in 10th place.

ATP Race to Turin Rankings

1. Jannik Sinner – 5,300 points
2. Alexander Zverev – 4,385
3. Carlos Alcaraz – 3,900
4. Casper Ruud – 3,435
5. Daniil Medvedev – 3,150
6. Alex de Minaur – 2,505
7. Stefanos Tsitsipas – 2,465
8. Andrey Rublev – 2,220

Alternates:
9. Grigor Dimitrov – 2,075
10. Novak Djokovic – 1,860