Why Novak Djokovic may be thinking twice about Monte-Carlo in 2026

Djokovic has decided to skip the Monte-Carlo Masters, snapping his 15-year appearance run.

Novak Djokovic has announced he won’t play in this year’s Monte-Carlo Masters, breaking a streak of appearances that dates back to 2008.

The Serbian has always been a fixture at the tournament, which also happens to be the first big clay event of the ATP Tour season.

He’s featured in the Monte-Carlo Masters more times than any other player, but surprisingly, he’s only come away with two titles.

Djokovic’s surprising Monte-Carlo record

Although a 71% win rate is still strong, it’s the lowest among his nine ATP 1000 tournaments. His next lowest mark is at the Madrid Open, where he holds a 75% win rate. And it’s not for lack of effort.

He has played there as many times as the Italian Open, but all other events have yielded more than two titles each.

Remarkably, he’s exited before the quarter-finals in eight separate years during those appearances.

The event has only seen him reach the final on four occasions out of those 18 trips. Given his overall excellence on tour, that number stands out as unusually low.

What is Novak Djokovic’s next tournament expected to be

Novak Djokovic hasn’t played since Indian Wells, and he has also pulled out of Miami and Monte-Carlo. But the 24-time Grand Slam champion isn’t expected to stay away from the sport for much longer.

The clay court tournament is set to begin on April 25th, and Feliciano Lopez, who is the director of the Madrid Open, revealed that it’s part of Djokovic’s plan this season.

“He’s keen to come to Madrid, that’s what I’ve been told. Obviously, we know Djokovic’s schedule lately is what it is. He has the ability to play very little and still be fighting for the big titles at almost 40 years old.

“What I think is that he’s keen to come to Madrid, so it’s one of his priorities of the clay court season, obviously after Roland Garros.

We have to be very respectful of this because he plays so infrequently and chooses his tournaments so specifically and precisely… We have to be cautious, but if everything goes well, we’ll have Djokovic in Madrid too.”

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