There are high expectations for Novak Djokovic going into this season, but after spending whole nine months without even winning a single tournament aside from the 2024 Paris Olympics, it does seem that desperation is certainly kicking in for the Serbian star as he now eyes to make it to the ATP Finals in Turin with a qualifying position.

Sure, Djokovic nearly had a chance to win his first ATP tournament of the season and claim his 100th tour-level title when he dropped the final in the Rolex Shanghai Masters against Jannik Sinner, but the Serbian ultimately set himself up for a big chance in the final tournament of the season.

Djokovic left the Shanghai Masters with crucial points that could send him into a qualifying position in the ATP Finals. He was initially ninth place in the list before playing in the eighth ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the season before surging into sixth place thanks to his trip to the final.

A Chance for Year-End Championships

Djokovic sits in the sixth spot with a total of 3,910 points as of the time of writing. He is 605 points ahead of Alex de Minaur, who is at ninth overall and will be outside of the cut for the season finale. This just means that the final stretch of tournaments will be crucial enough for Djokovic to seal his ticket to the ATP Finals.

So far, Jannik Sinner (10,330), Carlos Alcaraz (6,710), and Alexander Zverev (6,215) are the only players who are qualified in the ATP Finals. It cannot be denied that Djokovic is surging at the right time, and now he needs to cap off the rest of the year with a magnificent clap in his games.

So far, Djokovic is slated to rest in the coming tournaments and is likely to play later in the next and final Masters 1000 event of the season, the Rolex Paris Masters, which is set this October 28th to November 3rd. He may opt in to play in the likes of the Erste Bank Open (October 21-27) or the Swiss Indoors Basel (October 21-27), but is is more likely that the Serbian star will save his strength for the big stage of Paris instead.

Pushing for Greatness at Season’s End

It is also worth noting that Djokovic owns the most title wins in that said event, with the Serbian star scoring seven wins in the tournament. As the last player remaining of the iconic big three (Nadal opted to retire this season), Djokovic is keen to focus and try to compete more at a high level in hopes of cementing his place in the game.

“I don’t know what the future brings, I’ll just try to kind of go with the flow to see how I feel in a given moment but I still plan to compete and play next season,” he told reporters of his plans in the future after reports of Nadal’s retirement have surfaced. “Right now it’s really about Slams and about still seeing how far I can kind of push the bar for myself.”

As said before, this has been quite a disappointing year for Djokovic, who was expected to make a grind out of all the big competitions in the ATP Tour this year. At the age of 37, Djokovic seeks to earn his 17th run at the ATP Finals. Only Roger Federer (18) and Rafael Nadal (17) have managed to climb to the top of the season-ender tournament that many times so far.