Novak Djokovic withdrew from the follow-up Masters 1000 tournament in Miami a few days after the unexpected crash in Indian Wells. In Florida, the six-time champion was supposed to present himself for the first time since 2019, but due to his poor form, he prefers preparation and will concentrate his efforts on clay, on which the Olympic tournament is also held this year. Despite this year’s failures, she will enter the spring part of the season as world number one.
Last November, Novak Djokovic dominated the fourth event in a row (after Cincinnati, the US Open and Paris) at the Tournament of Champions. Since then, however, he has lost 4 out of 13 matches, and for only the third time since 2006, when he won his first title on the ATP circuit in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, he is without a single seasonal triumph in mid-March. He has an 8-3 record this year.
In January, he lost to Alex de Minaur at the United Cup and fell short of Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open after one of his worst Grand Slam performances. His last failure was this week at the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, where he unexpectedly lost a third-round match to Italian lucky loser and world No. 123 Luca Nardi. After the elimination, similar to in Melbourne, he criticized his own poor performance, admitting that he was hanging around in “some kind of negative circle” and was not approaching his ideal performances.
And he apparently does not want to repeat something similar at the second tournament of the Masters 1000 series of the season in Miami, which starts in Florida on March 20. On Thursday, Serbian journalist Saša Ozmo first announced on social networks that his famous compatriot would withdraw, and a few hours later it was official.
Novak Djokovic won’t play in Miami. — Saša Ozmo (@ozmo_sasa) March 14, 2024
Djokovic has not made any statement yet, but he has already stated that he will focus mainly on the big tournaments and wants to start in good shape. And it is precisely the second condition that he would probably not be able to fulfill in Florida after the unfortunate experience in California.
The six-time champion (2007, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016) was to appear in Miami for the fourteenth time in his career and for the first time since 2019, when he was eliminated in the round of 16 with Spaniard Roberto Bautista. Finally, five days before the start of the main competition, he apologized to the organizers and wants to return to the courts in better shape.
Novak Djokovic’s balance in Miami (@ Livesport)
At the Masters in Indian Wells and Miami in March, he won a total of 11 titles, but since 2016, due to frequent absences, he has not added any more.
Djokovic will now focus on the clay spring, by withdrawing from Miami he is giving himself more space to transition to a slower surface. His next tournament should be from April 7 in Monte Carlo, where he has not gone past the quarterfinals seven times in a row since his triumph in 2015. In the summer, success at the Olympic tournament, which will take place on the Paris clay roughly two months after the French Open, is a big priority for him.
Although Djokovic won only one match during March, he will not lose his post of world number one even after missing Miami. He still has a sufficient lead over his pursuers Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, but after Miami it may be minimal (theoretically 175 points).
Article originally published for Livesport News.
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