Will Djokovic & Nadal care to win masters?

[Atennisone]

I mean Djokovic was awful during sunshine doubles in 2019, despite winning AO easily and also WB that year.
Nadal has been awful in clay masters except for one in the last 6, and fooled us Nadal fans into believing he was going all of 2015 RG for RG 2019 and 2020

When was even the even the last time a Grand Slam winner won a Masters?

So what do you expect during Miami, is it plausible that both Nadal & Djokovic will withdraw due to conern of their injury, or will they keep dominating the masters?

 

[Milehigh5280]

Djokovic just said his focus is now slams, since he has locked up the weeks at #1 record. I expect him to treat Masters now as a tune-up for slams. It'll be a way for him to stay in match shape, avoid rust and try out new tactics. If he wins, it's a bonus, but I don't think he cares about having the Masters record, in the long run.

I wouldn't be surprised if he skipped IW and Miami to focus on the French Open and Wimbledon. Also, idk why he would want to fly to another continent and go through quarantine again when he has the luxury of not needing to play for financial stability

 

[18x20 ftw]

The masters and other events posture the top guys (Djok, Nadal) for the rankings they need to get the top seeds at the majors, and to achieve year end #1’s.

 

[Robert F]

True, but if you win the slam, you points stay pretty high to everyone else. For Djioker, winning Oz and just participating in a round or two of another event will keep him in the top 4 if not top spot.
Plus he has so many masters, I don't think it is a priority anymore.

I almost feel Djoker gets bored playing these guys. So maybe it keeps him motivated to be challenged only in the Slams.

 

[Dilexson]

Ithey stopped caring long time ago. I don't think they'd even remember the count if you asked suddenly lol

 

[Deleted member 762343]

Djokovic will have a lot of things in mind : recovering from his injury, RG, Wimbledon, Olympics and USO. Will probably not do great in Masters so Nadal will likely finish the year with more Masters.

 

[Sudacafan]

Yes, as preparation to win slams

 

[socallefty]

I think Djokovic will play the compulsory Masters tournaments in the future to keep his ranking and therefore Slam seeding high. But, he might try to win seriously only the tournaments right before a Slam like the ATP Cup, Rome, Queens (if he plays it) and Cincinnati. I can see him citing injury to skip a lot of tournaments that he normally played in the past including Indian Wells/Miami/Shanghai as it is not part of the prep for a Slam.

Nadal will likely play all the big clay tournaments like he always does, but might skip more outdoor hard court and indoor tournaments except a couple of the ones right before the US Open.

With COVID and quarantines still an issue in 2021 and families unable to travel with the players, I can see both of them skipping almost all the non-Slam tournaments outside of Europe this year. Djokovic pretty much said this when he was talking about the need to set up a “bubble” in only a few venues this year instead of doing the usual traveling circus that the ATP tour normally is.