The draw for the Shanghai Masters has been confirmed as Novak Djokovic faces a tough path to the latter stages of the China tournament.

The 24-time Grand Slam winner has only played 40 matches this year and his last match on court saw him bow out of the US Open third round in August.

Djokovic admitted that his schedule for the remainder of the year would be “spontaneous”, although he did confirm his participation at the ATP 1000 event for the first time since 2019.

The 12-day long event will get underway on Wednesday, October 2 running until Sunday, October 13, with qualifying already underway as of September 30.

Djokovic will have some time to prepare for his match, as the world No. 4 faces the winner of Alex Michelsen or Yunchaokete Bu in his first match of the competition after receiving a bye into round two.

Assuming the Serbian makes it past one of the unseeded duo, he could then face a potential match-up against Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals and the No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev in the last four.

Zverev also has a bye into round two and will be first up against a qualifier in R2 in Shanghai, giving him a favourable chance of meeting his familiar foe Djokovic in the semi-finals.

The 37-year-old leads their overall head-to-head battle 8-4, with their last meeting coming at the semi-final stage of the Cincinnati Open in 2023. Djokovic won that day 7-6, 7-5 to reach the final.

Despite ending the calendar year without a Grand Slam title to his name for the first time since 2017, Djokovic will be confident of his chances in the Far East.

He is a four-time champion at the venue, lifting the winner’s trophy in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018. Aside from a fifth title in Shanghai, Djokovic is also hoping to clinch his milestone 100th career title, which would take him closer to matching Roger Federer’s haul of 103.

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz could also find themselves in each other’s crosshairs in the final after being scheduled in opposite sections of the draw.

And Djokovic could be on course to face either one if he makes it through to the final, albeit with potential difficult tests against Andrey Rublev and Zverev to come prior to that.

Hubert Hurkacz is the reigning champion in Shanghai after the Pole defeated Rublev in the final, winning 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 to claim the title in 2023.

However, the 27-year-old will not be competing at the event this year due to a knee injury, with early exits from the US Open and Japan Open underlining his fitness issues.