Djokovic has won the China Open for a seventh time. De Minaur retired in the second set, a day after Medvedev was defaulted

Novak Djokovic won the China Open for a seventh time on Tuesday when Alex de Minaur retired early in the second set of the final. Djokovic had taken the first set 7-6 after a tie-break, and De Minaur won the opening game of the second before stopping. It is Djokovic's first title of 2026, his 102nd on the tour, and it takes his record in Beijing to 34-0.

The final

The first set took just over an hour and went to a tie-break, which Djokovic won. Both players then took medical timeouts. Djokovic was treated on court first, and De Minaur went off court for treatment before returning to play one game and retiring. It was the second match in two days in Beijing to end early, after Medvedev's default on Monday and Hubert Hurkacz's retirement against De Minaur.

There's something about Beijing that keeps me going.

Novak Djokovic, after Monday's semi-final, via ATP Tour

What the title means

Djokovic reached the final as the oldest ATP 500 singles finalist since the category began in 2009, passing Roger Federer, who was 38 when he won in Basel in 2019. It was his first ATP 500 final since Astana in 2022 and his second final of 2026, after the Australian Open final he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in four sets in January. His last title was the Hellenic Championship in Athens last November.

The title leaves him one short of Federer's 103 tour-level titles, with only Jimmy Connors, on 109, ahead of Federer in the Open Era list.

He came to Beijing after first-round exits at Cincinnati and the US Open, and needed a medical timeout to beat Nuno Borges in his opening match. He then beat Bu Yunchaokete, came from a set down to beat top seed Alexander Zverev in Sunday's quarter-final, and reached the final when Daniil Medvedev was defaulted.

Medvedev's default

Djokovic led Medvedev 7-5, 5-3 and was serving for the match on Monday when, after a Djokovic forehand volley, the ball bounced off the advertising boards back to Medvedev, who hit a backhand into the stands. Reuters reported that it struck a spectator in the eye, and AFP saw a man in the stands holding his face and being escorted from his seat.

Medvedev was defaulted. Sky Sports reported that he will lose all the points and prize money he earned in Beijing, and that he apologised, calling it a "100 per cent accident". Djokovic said he felt sorry for him. He was himself disqualified from the 2020 US Open after a ball he hit struck a line judge, and he told reporters he knew exactly how it feels to be defaulted in a big match.

The semi-final had been a fight before it ended. Djokovic was broken first, hit back at once and took a first set of an hour and 19 minutes, saving seven break points on the way. Over the match he saved 16 of the 18 break points he faced, and Medvedev, who had arrived on a seven-match winning run after taking the Hangzhou title, won only two of them.

How De Minaur got there

De Minaur, the fifth seed, reached the final when Hurkacz retired at 6-4, 3-2 with an adductor injury, which Hurkacz said he first felt in his quarter-final. It was De Minaur's 10th ATP 500 final, and he was looking for a second title of the season after Rotterdam in February. Djokovic led their ATP head-to-head 3-1 going into the final.