BASEL, Switzerland : Novak Djokovic suffered a setback in his bid to qualify for the ATP Finals after losing to Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff in the second round of the Swiss Indoors on Thursday, leaving the Serbian with limited opportunities to secure a place at the season-ending tournament in Turin.
The 39-year-old, playing in Basel for the first time in 15 years, lost 6-7(4) 7-5 7-6(5) to Struff, his first defeat by the German in nine meetings.
Struff sealed the victory with his 27th ace of the match.
“I knew I needed to go for it. There was only one way to play it. So I was very happy,” Struff said.
“The last serve went into the corner like many balls today. I knew I had to play my best tennis to have a chance. The last eight times, he beat me very easily. So I’m very pleased with the performance.”
The defeat left Djokovic 11th in the ATP Finals qualification race, 319 points behind ninth-placed Rafael Jodar, who currently occupies the final qualifying position with injured Jannik Sinner unavailable for the tournament.
Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton have already qualified for the eight-player event, which begins on November 15, leaving Djokovic to battle for one of the remaining places.
Paris offers another opportunity
Djokovic’s next chance to collect ranking points will come at the Paris Masters, which runs from November 2-8. The Serbian is a record seven-time champion at the tournament.
He has not indicated whether he would consider entering the Stockholm Open, an ATP 250 event scheduled afterwards, if he still needs points to qualify for Turin.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion missed the previous two editions of the ATP Finals because of injury but had expressed his desire to return to the event, which he has won a record seven times, if he qualified.
Djokovic has endured another physically challenging season, although reaching the Australian Open final, making the Wimbledon semi-finals and winning the title in Beijing have provided notable highlights.
The Serbian remains determined to compete with a younger generation of players despite his physical struggles.
“I won the title in Beijing a few weeks ago, which was definitely my best week this year apart from the Grand Slam final in Australia,” Djokovic told reporters before the Basel tournament.
“It’s been a year with a lot of struggles, particularly physically, but I’m still here and as competitive as anybody. If somebody beats me, well done, good job, but I’m definitely going to fight and not give these youngsters too easy a stroll on court. They have to earn their victories.”
“That’s also what motivates me: seeing how I can match up with players 15-plus years younger than me. It’s been quite an interesting process to experience.”
