Due to a shoulder injury, Novak Djokovic will not play at the ATP Finals in Turin, where he was supposed to play against the American Taylor Fritz in two days, and the Italian Lorenzo Musetti will take his place in the group named after Jimmy Connors, the organizers announced.
Djokovic on Sunday in exciting finale ATP 250 tournament in Athens defeated Musetti 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 and thereby won the 101st title in his career and at the same time, at 38 years and five months, became the oldest trophy winner on the ATP Tour since its inception in 1990.
That seemed to leave the 23-year-old Italian without a premier appearance at the ATP Finals, as Musetti remained in ninth place in the “Race to Turin”.
But after it received the winner’s cup in the Athens Olympic Hall, Djokovic informed the organizers in Turin that he could not play in the tournament of the eight best tennis players this season, even though he qualified for the ATP Finals for the 18th time.
I was really looking forward to the competition in Turin and I wanted to be at my best, but after today’s final in Athens, I’m sorry to have to give up due to an injury that is bothering meDjokovic said via social media.
I am truly sorry for the fans who were hoping to see me play – your support means a lot to me. To all players I want an excellent performance at the tournament and I can’t wait to meet again soon on the field!
With Musetti’s performance, Italy will have two representatives at the ATP Finals for the first time in history.
Four years ago, Matteo Berrettini played in the group stage, but then had to withdraw due to injury, and was replaced by Jannik Sinner.
But now it will Italy to have two representativesone in each group.
Sinner, as the current world number 1 and the defender of last year’s title, leads the group named after the Swedish tennis legend Bjorn Borg, and with him there are two-time winner of the ATP Finals from Germany Alexander Zverev, American Ben Shelton and Canadian Felix Auger-Alissime.
In the “Jimmy Connors” group are Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, American Taylor Fritz, Australian Alex de Minaur and Lorenzo Musetti.
U the first matches of the first round of the group stage will be played on Sunday phases. However, contrary to the custom of playing matches of one group every other day, one match from each group will be played on the first and second day.
So they will play on Sunday from 2 p.m Carlos Alcaraz and Alex de Minaurand from 8:30 p.m Alexander Zverev and Ben Shelton.
That means he will be on the field on Monday Taylor Fritz and Lorenzo Musetti you Jannik Sinner and Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Croatian tennis will be represented at this year’s ATP Final by Mate Pavić with his partner Marcel Arevala in the doubles competition.
They are placed in the “John McEnroe” group, which also includes the Finnish-British couple Harri Heliovaara – Henry Patten, the British Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski, and the Americans Christian Harrison and Evan King.
Pavić and Arevalo will make their first appearance on Monday, and their opponents will be Salisbury and Skupski.
(Hina | Photo: X)
