TENNIS
Djokovic withdraws from Cincinnati title defence
The Serbian, who withdrew from the Canadian Masters 1000 before winning the Olympic title, will return straight to the US Open, losing 1,000 points.
Novak Djokovic will not defend the title he won in 2023 in Cincinnati. The Serbian, recent Olympic champion, confirmed on Thursday that he will not be participating in the American Masters 1000 - the first time that the winner of 24 Grand Slams has not taken part in the tournament in 20 years. Nole has won the Cincinnati Open three times during his career - in 2017 after beating Federer, in 2019 when he saw off Milos Raonic and last year when he defeated Carlos Alcaraz.
Djokovic, Nadal and Alcaraz won’t be in Montreal
“Cincinnati will miss our defending champion. We can’t wait to see more torn shirts in the future!” the tournament joked on social media, referring to the gesture Djokovic made after beating Carlos Alcaraz in a final decided in the third set.
Djokovic also withdrew from the Masters 1000 in Canada (as did the Murcian and Rafa Nadal), which is being played in Montreal, although in that case he had no points to defend, because he did not participate last year either. He will lose points for not going to the city in the state of Ohio though, 1,000 points to be specific, which could mean losing second place in the ATP ranking to Alcaraz.
If the Spaniard reaches the round of 16, he will overtake the Balkan and enter the US Open, where Djokovic would in principle reappear, as the number one seed, on the opposite side of the draw to Jannik Sinner, the number one. Apart from the Olympic gold clinched in Paris on Sunday, the Belgrade-born star has not won any ATP tournament in 2024.