Novak Djokovic has announced that he will be skipping the upcoming Toronto Masters event. The World No.2 last won the competition back in 2016. Djokovic has missed out on playing in Canada since 2018. And by skipping this year’s edition too, he will miss out on equaling a record by Rafael Nadal.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion’s next tournament will be the Cincinnati Masters instead, just before the US Open 2023. However, Djokovic might be robbing himself of a huge opportunity to achieve an all-time record at least for the next 12 months, which will be held by his biggest rival, Rafael Nadal.
Novak Djokovic to miss glorious chance to level up with Rafael Nadal
When it comes to the Rogers Cup, it is Rafael Nadal who has won the most number of titles there, i.e. 5 of them. Nadal has the most titles for a non-American player, with Ivan Lendl leading the all-time list at 6. This is a remarkable stat considering that Nadal isn’t a hard court specialist and having to face stiff competition from the likes of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray amongst others over the years. The Spaniard was the champion in Canada in 2005, 2008, 2013, 2018 and 2019.
A striking similarity between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic is that both the players announced themselves as top competitors on the ATP Tour largely because of winning this tournament at a young age. Nadal had famously defeated American legend Andre Agassi in the 2005 final at the age of 19. On the other hand, Djokovic won the tournament in 2007 at the age of 20, defeating Roddick, Nadal and Federer on the way. It remains a rare instance of a player defeating the top 3 ranked players of the world in consecutive matches in a Masters series.
The 2007 win was Novak Djokovic’s first win in Canada and post that, he won the tournament 3 more times, i.e. in 2011, 2012 and 2016. Had he opted to play this year, the Serbian superstar would have most probably become the second player after Nadal to win the prestigious tournament 5 times. Yet, he is ahead of Andy Murray and Roger Federer at least in this regard.
Rogers Cup history and impact on US Open over the years
Murray has won the event thrice, i.e. in 2009, 2010 and 2015. On the other hand, Federer has only won the event twice, i.e. in 2004 and 2006. Much like the Wimbledon Championships, the Rogers Cup has been dominated largely by the four legends of tennis in the last 19 years. However, the trophy has seen a change of guard as Daniil Medvedev emerged as the champion in 2021 while Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain is the current defending champion from 2022.
To a certain extent, the tournament has lived up to being a precursor to the US Open, in terms of predicting what will happen at the Grand Slam based on the results in Toronto. Even in this regard, Federer (2004 and 2006), Nadal (2013 and 2019) and Djokovic (2011 and 2015) are tied as all three players have gone on to win the US Open twice in their careers in the same year that they won the Canadian Open. The latest player to achieve this feat is Daniil Medvedev as the Russian won the US Open in 2021 too, but he has done this only once so far in his career.
