Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the Miami Open, where he finished runner-up in 2025. The world No. 3 recently reached the fourth round in Indian Wells, losing to British star Jack Draper in a physical three-set battle. And he will not continue the 'Sunshine Double' in Miami, as the ATP confirmed Djokovic had pulled out of the next Masters 1000 tournament due to a shoulder injury.

Djokovic lost to Jakub Mensik in last year's final. By withdrawing from the tournament, he will now lose the 650 ranking points he earned for his runner-up showing 12 months ago, and is set to drop outside of the world's top three.

The Serbian superstar is a six-time former champion in Miami but has rarely played the tournament in recent years. He reached the fourth round in 2019 and did not compete again until his run to the final last March.

Djokovic had already revealed that he was playing through an injury while competing in Indian Wells this past fortnight. The world No. 3 wore an arm sleeve throughout the tournament, but this wasn't of any huge concern, as he recently announced a new collaboration with Incrediwear on his own range of recovery sleeves.

But ahead of his fourth-round clash with Draper, the 38-year-old told Tennis Channel that he was dealing with a forearm issue. "I've been struggling the last couple of weeks with that forearm and trying to go through. It's a bit odd, the more I serve, the better I feel, but then it comes on and off if I get cold," Djokovic explained.

"If I don't serve for five or six minutes, then I feel like the first couple of serves of that game are a bit painful. I'm working through it. It's not something I haven't faced before. It's the ins and outs of being a tennis player at this level, but overall, the body is feeling okay. Hopefully it's going to get better every day."

It was, however, a shoulder injury which forced him out of the upcoming Miami Open. The men's singles main draw gets underway on Wednesday, but Djokovic wouldn't have played his opening match until Friday or Saturday as one of the top seeds.

Djokovic never truly hit the ground running in Indian Wells, despite reaching the fourth round there for the first time in nine years. He dropped sets to Kamil Majchrzak and Aleksandar Kovacevic in his first two matches before suffering a 4-6 6-4 7-6(5) defeat to 2025 champion Draper.

The 38-year-old won a thrilling 26-shot rally against Draper early in the third set, but ultimately believes that cost him. Djokovic was broken a couple of games later. He broke back when the British No. 1 served for the match, but ultimately lost in a tiebreak. "One point [made the difference]. Yeah, one point," Djokovic later said.

"I mean, it cost me a break after, you know. It was great winning that point in that game, but I just, like, ran completely out of the gas and just started to feel a bit better towards basically end of the third. He played a sloppy game to close it out 5-4, and, you know, I got the crowd, you know, backing me, and I felt the energy. It was, like, maybe I'm gonna take this one. It was so close, so close. I mean, just unfortunate few mistakes from my side. Tiebreak, 4-3 up. 5-5, as well. That's tennis."

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