2020 Rolex Paris Masters: Which players are giving the tournament a miss?

World No.1 Novak Djokovic will be the most glaring omission from the Paris Bercy main draw. The Serb chose to skip this year’s tournament after a key change in the ATP rules – the points earned at a tournament won’t be dropped if one had performed equally well or better in the tournament last year. Since Novak won the tournament last year, he wouldn’t get any points for participating this year. So, to gain some extra points, he chose to participate in the Vienna Open instead. He did this to ensure a record-equaling 6th year-end World No. 1 ranking.

Needless to say, he couldn’t guarantee that either, losing to Italian Lorenzo Sonego in the quarterfinals. It was one of the heaviest defeats of his career, only taking 3 games in the entire match.

World No. 4 played his last tournament of 2020 at the Australian Open, after which he elected to take surgery on his knee. An extended recovery period meant that Roger would miss the rest of the 2020 season, including this tournament. He is set to make his return to the ATP Tour in the Australian Open next year.

Frenchman Gael Monfils chose to skip the rest of the 2020 season after suffering from a neck injury. The COVID-19 break had an adverse effect on his form, failing to win any match after the break ended. While some rumors emerged of the athletic world no. 11 retiring from tennis entirely, he refuted them.

Canadian World No. 12 Denis Shapovalov elected to skip the Paris Bercy Masters after an opening round defeat at the Vienna Open. Despite making it to the quarters of the French Open and the semis at St. Petersburg, he couldn’t sustain his form and fell behind in the ATP Finals race.

The pandemic break didn’t teach the flashy Frenchman well. Benoit Paire only won one match in six tournaments and had the misfortune of testing positive twice for the coronavirus. Paire recently said that he is looking forward to the next season and thus chose to skip Paris Bercy.

The talented Japanese has had a disappointing run-in with injuries since his peak in 2015. This season too, he has been troubled with issues. After picking up a shoulder injury at the French Open, Kie Nishikori just couldn’t recover well enough. He put an end to his season after withdrawing from the Vienna Open before his first-round match against Dominic Thiem.