Fresh from his Paris title, confident Djokovic aiming for seventh ATP Finals crown

For many players on the ATP Tour, the 2023 season came to an end at the Rolex Paris Masters. That isn’t the case, of course, for Novak Djokovic.

Still on the world No 1’s schedule for the remainder of the calendar year are the Nitto ATP Finals and the Davis Cup Finals.

Up first is the Nitto ATP Finals, the prestigious year-end championship that now takes place in Turin following a run of more than a decade in London. Djokovic has won the ATP Finals six times, including last autumn — the second chapter of the tournament’s tenure in Turin. He is a heavy favourite to lift a seventh trophy; not only is Djokovic obviously the top seed, but he also has not lost a match since falling to Carlos Alcaraz in an epic Wimbledon final. The 36-year-old has reeled off consecutive titles at the Cincinnati Masters, US Open and Paris Masters. He defeated Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-3 in the Paris final on Sunday.

Understandably, Djokovic is sky high on confidence heading into Turin.

“Now it’s going to be recovery time definitely (for the) next three (or) four days, to really leave the racket aside and just spend time with the family and recharge,” the Serb said, “and then go to Torino, where every match is going to be like finals of a big tournament, because you play a top-8 player (in every match), every match carries a lot of points (and) carries a lot of importance.

“It’s a group-stage format, which we don’t get to experience in any other tournament. So even if you lose a match or even two, in a round-robin system you can still go through (to the) semis. I had the perfect score in Torino last year: five out of five matches. I like playing there; I think I connect well with the Italian crowd.

“I’m going there with good feelings, with a lot of confidence. You know, I haven’t lost a match since Wimbledon final — so I’m really excited to hopefully finish off the season on a high.”

Djokovic will almost certainly finish the season on a high — at No 1 in the world, to be exact — even if he doesn’t win the Nitto ATP Finals. Just a single round-robin match victory would be enough, and if Djokovic goes 0-3 then Carlos Alcaraz would still have to go undefeated and capture the title in order to pass the 24-time Grand Slam champion. In other words, the race is all but over.

“I’m going for whatever I can go for,” Djokovic assured. “I’m very close. I think I need one win to clinch the year No. 1, so that [is] the biggest goal other than Davis Cup for the end of the year.”

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