Novak Djokovic retirement hint dropped as Paris Masters boss reveals new timeline

12:02, Mon, Nov 2, 2026 Updated: 12:02, Mon, Nov 2, 2026

The Paris Masters tournament director believes this could be Novak Djokovic's last appearance here (Image: Getty)

The Paris Masters tournament director has suggested that Novak Djokovic could be making his last appearance at the event before ending his career. The world No. 11 has not played the final Masters 1000 of the season since 2023, when he beat Grigor Dimitrov to lift the trophy here for the seventh time. Djokovic is finally making his long-awaited return to the Paris Masters this week, but he’s been handed a brutal draw, coming up against Swiss Indoors champion Valentin Vacherot in the first round.

This will be Djokovic’s first appearance at the tournament since it moved from its old home of the Accor Arena in Bercy to the La Defense Arena in Nanterre. And tournament boss Cedrid Pioline has urged fans to make the most of the Serbian superstar’s presence, as this could be his final outing here.

“I think the message is: Let’s make the most of it. Let’s make the most of Novak, because if it’s not his last appearance here, it’s maybe his second-to-last,” Pioline said ahead of the tournament, suggesting Djokovic’s career could have another year left.

“Our record holder, seven wins at the Rolex Paris Masters, and, no need to say it, 24 Grand Slam wins.”

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Novak Djokovic will face recent Basel champion Valentin Vacherot (Image: Getty)

Only the top eight seeds in Paris receive byes directly into round two, and as the No. 10 seed, Djokovic will have to begin his campaign in the first round on Tuesday. Vacherot was always going to be a tough prospect – he beat Djokovic on his way to winning the Shanghai Masters as a qualifier ranked down at No. 204 last year – but he now comes in full of confidence after being crowned the Basel champion on Sunday.

And Pioline added: “There’s never an easy round, but probably a difficult one, since Vacherot himself, we saw that he was a bit injured this year, came back in good form, with a lot of desire to do well.

“He’s a player with a lot of quality in his game. And Novak is a little less effective than he was a few years ago, because the years are there.”

Djokovic has made it clear that he hopes to qualify for the ATP Finals in Turin. The eight players who have earned the most ranking points in a single season get a space at the year-end Finals, but with Jannik Sinner ending his 2026 season early, the ninth-place player will get in this year.

In order to keep his qualification hopes alive, the world No. 11 must reach at least the semi-finals in Paris this week, but his fate also depends on other players’ results. This week is the last chance for players to book their spot in the ATP Finals.

The ATP changed the rules this year, making it so that the race rankings on the first Monday after the Paris Masters determine who qualifies for the season-ending championships. In previous years, the qualification cut came a week later, after various ATP 250 events in Europe.

It meant players on the cusp of getting in would compete elsewhere for the last spots, and potentially pull out of that tournament once they qualified, or would arrive in Turin feeling fatigued.

But the Paris Masters is the last tournament week that counts in the race this year, and Pioline said: “There’s a lot of nervousness, a lot at stake and a lot of desire for these players to finish in the top eight.”