Alex de Minaur has become the first Australian since Lleyton Hewitt in 2004 to qualify for the season-ending ATP Finals after Novak Djokovic announced his withdrawal on Tuesday night. De Minaur was slated to play in Belgrade this week in an attempt to secure his place in the $23 million event in Turin, but Djokovic’s decision not to play means the Aussie has qualified.

De Minaur was sitting in the eighth and final spot in the race to the ATP Finals, while Djokovic was sixth before he withdrew. It means de Minaur was bumped up to seventh and automatically qualified without having to play in Belgrade, subsequently withdrawing from the ATP 250 event.

Djokovic has scaled back his schedule in the second half of 2024, opting to spend more time with his family after completing his goal of winning singles gold at the Paris Olympics. In withdrawing from the ATP Finals, he cited a knee injury which has hampered him this season.

“I was really looking forward to being there, but due to ongoing injury I won’t be playing next week,” said Djokovic, who won the ATP Finals in 2023 for a record seventh time. “Apologies to those who were planning to see me.”

Alex de Minaur handed shot at $23 million ATP Finals prize pool

It means the season-ending event will be missing all of the ‘Big 3’ of men’s tennis – Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal – for the first time in 23 years. But it will also means there’s an Australian man in the singles draw for the first time in 20 years since Hewitt got to the final in 2004 and was beaten by Federer.

Djokovic’s decision to withdraw means he’ll forego a shot at the staggering US$15 million (AU$23m) prize pool. The singles champion has the chance to earn a record-breaking $US4.8m ($AU7.3m) – the largest winner’s prize on the men’s tour – if he can triumph without losing a match.

De Minaur will go up against Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, Andrey Rublev and Casper Ruud in the eight-man round-robin event, starting on Monday (Australian time). The Aussie has a winning record against Ruud (2-0), Rublev (4-3) and Fritz (5-3), but losing ones against Medvedev (3-6), Alcaraz (0-2), Zverev (2-8) and Sinner (0-7).

The 37-year-old Djokovic is prioritising the grand slam tournaments in the twilight of his career and is desperate to win a record-breaking 25th major trophy that would see him surpass the all-time record he shares with Margaret Court. He was recently pictured on holidays with his family in the Maldives, having decided to skip last week’s Paris Masters tournament that his top rivals competed in. The Serb later turned up to watch the prelims at the Belgrade Open on Sunday, but it appeared a clear sign he wasn’t planning on contesting the ATP Finals.

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It comes after he previously admitted he isn’t worried about the ATP Finals anymore and suggested that rest and recuperation ahead of a tilt at a record-extending 11th Australian Open crown in January was his No.1 priority. “Torino is not my goal at all, to be honest, I am not chasing ATP Finals, I am not chasing the rankings,” Djokovic said after playing for Serbia in the Davis Cup in September. “As far as I am concerned, I am done with those tournaments for my career. Whether I will play in other tournaments this year or in the future, I can’t say right now.”

De Minaur has enjoyed a breakout season that saw him enter the top-10 for the first time in his career. Australia’s No.1 male went down 4-6 6-4 5-7 to Danish youngster Holger Rune last week at the Paris Masters, in an engrossing two-hour and 25-minute slugfest that saw him once again exit at the last-eight stage. As well as booking his spot in the ATP Finals, de Minaur is also hoping to cement his spot in Hewitt’s Australia squad for the finals of the Davis Cup, which get underway with a quarter-final tie against the USA in Malaga on November 21.

with AAP