Djokovic Knocked Out in Basel as ATP Finals Path Narrows

Novak Djokovic lost to Jan-Lennard Struff in the second round of the Swiss Indoors tournament held in Switzerland on Thursday. The 39-year-old Serbian player was playing in Basel for the first time in 15 years. The result meant he missed a chance to collect points in the race to qualify for Turin.

Struff had lost all eight of his previous matches against Djokovic. The German player beat Djokovic for the first time in this match and hit 27 aces. After the match, Struff said he was happy with his performance and reminded reporters that his opponent had easily beaten him in their last eight meetings.

With this result, Djokovic dropped to 11th in the ATP Finals standings. The gap between him and ninth-placed Rafael Jodar grew to 319 points. While Jannik Sinner was reported to be missing the Turin event due to injury, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton have already secured their places in the tournament. The Finals will begin on 15 November.

Djokovic will go into the Paris Masters, held from 2 to 8 November, aiming for a record seventh title there. He has not yet said whether he will play the ATP 250 event in Stockholm. The player, who missed the last two ATP Finals due to injury, had previously said he wanted to return to the tournament if the opportunity arose. The 24-time Grand Slam champion has had a physically demanding season. His standout results this year were the Australian Open final, the Wimbledon semifinal and the Beijing title.

Before the tournament, Djokovic described his Beijing title as the best week of his year. He also stressed that he would not make things easy for his young rivals and that they would have to earn their victories.