Update, Sunday 4 October: Zverev lost to Novak Djokovic 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the Beijing quarter-finals, so he cannot win the Beijing title. Sinner withdrew from the Shanghai Masters on Saturday 3 October. The route set out below, winning Beijing and Shanghai with Sinner absent from Shanghai, is now closed. Read the match report.
Jannik Sinner will not defend his China Open title. The world No. 1 withdrew from Beijing on Friday 25 September in a video on X, saying his knee was not yet where he wanted it to be and that he was not ready to compete. On Saturday 3 October he withdrew from the Shanghai Masters as well, which runs from 7 to 18 October, in a statement on Instagram. He has given no date for his return.
It is the fifth tournament he has missed since he beat Alexander Zverev in the Wimbledon final on 12 July. The right knee problem had already kept him out of Canada, Cincinnati and the US Open, where Zverev won his second major of the year.
Zverev was the top seed in Beijing. He beat Cameron Norrie 7-6, 6-4 on Thursday 1 October, after saving a set point in the first set, and Shang Juncheng 6-0, 6-3 on Saturday. That kept one specific route to the top of the rankings open until Sunday, when Djokovic beat him in the quarter-finals.
Before that match, the numbers stood as follows. After the US Open, the ATP put the gap between the two at 1,810 points. Sinner's 500 points from winning Beijing last year come off his total. Zverev loses the 100 he earned by reaching the quarter-finals, but 40 points from this year's United Cup return to his count in their place. That left the gap at 1,370.
A Beijing title would have been worth 500 points and would have replaced the United Cup result, cutting the gap to 910. Both men lost in the third round in Shanghai last year, so each drops 50 points there. With Sinner out of Shanghai and Zverev winning it, the German would have finished 90 points ahead, and would have been No. 1 in the rankings published on Monday 19 October, the day after the final.
He needed both titles, and with the Beijing one gone he no longer can have them. Reaching the Beijing final and then winning Shanghai would still have left him 80 points short.
Zverev has not reached No. 1, and would have become the 30th player in the history of the ATP Rankings to do so. He has won neither event. He is a three-time semi-finalist in Beijing, and his best Shanghai result is the 2019 final, which he lost to Daniil Medvedev.
Corriere dello Sport reported on 25 September that Sinner could also miss Shanghai and stay in Monte Carlo to train for the European events. Sky Sport Italia reported the same evening that Shanghai remained his target. His withdrawal settles that. Sinner has not said what the problem with his knee is.
The pressure does not end in October either. Sinner has 3,000 more points to defend from his titles in Vienna, Paris and the ATP Finals, against 930 for Zverev. Both had been entered in Vienna, which starts on 24 October, and Sinner has not said whether he will play. Zverev has also led the Race to Turin, which counts only this season's results, since his US Open win. He kept his form after New York, clinching the Laver Cup for Team Europe on 27 September.
