Novak Djokovic plans to skip Brisbane International

Former World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has announced his decision to skip January's Brisbane International, contrary to reports that the Serb would start his 2018 campaign in Australia. Djokovic would start his season at the Qatar Open, an exhibition ATP event in Doha, which gets underway on Dec. 31.

In September, Djokovic said he would resume from injury in Brisbane. Since Rafael Nadal is playing in both Qatar and Brisbane, there's no reason why Djokovic can't do the same. Ranked No. 12 in the world, Djokovic would likely receive a first-round bye and not begin at Brisbane before Jan. 4. However, Djokovic has decided to skip the event in Brisbane to participate in Doha for a fourth consecutive year.

Last month, Djokovic confirmed his participation in Doha, where he has played in each of the past three years, winning its final twice. He would be joined by World No. 5 Dominic Thiem and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, besides Nadal.

Novak Djokovic to return from injury at Qatar Open

“The line-up (in Abu Dhabi) is very strong and it will be the perfect way to make my comeback. The whole thing about my tennis and what happened to me is more complex than a single word, although that (the elbow) was the biggest problem, I could not train like I wanted, could not play with full intensity. I did not want to take a break, but the problems were intensifying," Djokovic said recently while announcing his decision to return from his career-threatening elbow injury.

Djokovic, the 12-time Grand Slam champion, hasn't played at the Queensland Tennis Centre since 2009. As of this writing, both the likes of Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Grigor Dimitrov, the newly-crowned ATP World Tour Finals winner, have all confirmed their participation at the Brisbane International.